


Gems Are Kids' Best Friends

by Blue_Mistfall



Series: Gem YouTuber AU [1]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: All egos are gems, Alternative Universe - Gems, Child Felix Kjellberg, Child Mark Fischbach, Child Signe Hansen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2020-12-14 16:19:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21018674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Mistfall/pseuds/Blue_Mistfall
Summary: Some believe that wizards live among us. What about aliens? Not the big bad aliens, but quite benign, just a bit... off. It's going to be found out when one of the town's kids finds something strange at the local beach.





	1. Meet the Gang

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by pictures made by SifferKO on DeviantArt. See the first one here: http://fav.me/dd008wk  
They have more pictures of Gem Egos, including their type, so you should visit their page to see the picture clearer.

If there was someone in the town to wreak havoc, then in 99% of cases it was Felix. Or, as most adults referred to him, Helix, for this kid was unable to speak quietly and ran along the streets like a tornado, startling everybody who wasn’t ready. However, he was not the main problem right now, for the inhabitants of the town have been exchanging wary glances, not daring to speak about the matter.  
“Hey guys! I told you I’d find a treasure, and here goes!”  
Felix, ever so tactless, dashed onto the porch, tripped on the highest step and fell with a crash next to Mark’s and Signe’s feet.  
“Stop screaming like that, we’re gonna be punished,” Signe said, pointing at the closed entrance doors behind her: their parents were ‘having an important meeting’. Gosh, could they possibly have their meetings at work instead of home if it was so necessary?  
“Na-ah. While I’m here, you won’t get beans,” Felix smirked, sat up and showed them what he was carrying: a small leather briefcase. “Found it on the beach, was hidden in the sand. No way that someone could’ve lost it. Why would it be dug so deeply, then?”  
The ‘treasure chest’s’ inside was divided into ten mold-like containers of various shape, six of which contained gems: triangular cyan, elongated six-sided teal, round orange with ‘pointer’ lines, perfectly round purple, hexagonal indigo and semicircular chocolate brown. The shapes of the remaining containers were rhombus, eye shape, hexagon with two longer sides and pentagon.  
“What squander,” Signe wrinkled and carefully took the purple gem. Its middle appeared to be circled with a rounded ring of darker shade of purple. The same referred to the rest of the gems, as if each of them was made of two joint halves and these rings hid the seams. “Who would hide such treasures?”  
“I don’t think those are treasures,” Mark pointed out. “Those are not rubies or sapphires, so they should not be too expensive.”  
Meanwhile Felix was greedily eying the gems; Signe could almost see gears turning under his sandy blond hair.  
“I’ve seen this color combination before,” he admitted. “It’s a part of another color combination, which is… Yes! Recalled! The banisters!”  
“Banisters?” Mark parroted.  
“Yes. The banister columns at the… you know where.” Felix intentionally crumpled the ending up in order for nobody else to hear it. But it was enough to make Signe’s eyes go round:  
“The house at the end of the shore? No way!”  
“You better believe it. I’ve been there before, and the porch banister has ten columns, all of different colors. These six are among them as well, and even in the same order if you look like this…” Felix rotated the briefcase so that the gems and empty sections were in five rows, two items each. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence…”  
“And?” Mark asked.  
“What?”  
“Was there anything sinister about that house? No one dares to talk about it, almost like about Voldemort.”  
“Nope, just an ordinary house, although too huge,” Felix shrugged. “No beasts, no guard dogs, no nothing. I suppose this is to be returned there.”  
“Before you run away, know this: I am going with you,” Signe stated, for the wish to learn who lived in the house at the end of the shore was too strong, and it was a perfect opportunity.  
“Not only you, it seems like we all are going there,” Mark added. “Returning is fine, but I’m not going to let anything happen to you two.”

***

Signe and Mark knew perfectly well that the ‘important meetings’ of their parents lasted some hours at least. Besides, it was summer, and this meant they had a right to explore everything they wanted before the sunset, so this wasn’t the thing bothering them when they reached the end of the shore.  
Indeed, the house was nothing different from an ordinary beach house, just too huge, but proportional. And the banister columns at the sides of the high porch were of different colors, including those of gems in the briefcase.  
“Told ya,” Felix smirked and bravely made his way to the entrance door. “Hello? Anybody at home? Hello?”  
Nobody answered. The house remained quiet, not a single movement heard from the outside.  
“Hey, look, the door’s open.” Signe slightly punched the door, and it opened. “Why would anyone leave the door open?”  
“No idea, but we’d better not stay here for long,” Mark whispered.  
They found themselves in a wide living-room full of sunlight streaming into the place through windows under the high ceiling and at the habitual height. Generally, it was not only a living-room: this place was only symbolically divided into three zones. The largest one was the living-room itself, the second one was the kitchen in the farther end of the place and the third one was an empty space where the walls were decorated with gem patterns (mostly icy blue and white) and the only door apart from the entrance was seen. It was enormous and adorned with a pattern of star with ten beams, in the middle of which a compass arrow was slowly turning. Apart from them, there appeared to be the second floor, for the kids spotted a staircase in the distance.  
“Ten beams, ten gems,” Signe hummed, studying the star.  
“Right, let’s just leave them here and get away,” Mark suggested. “Man, that’s even creepy that there’s no alarm here…”  
“We don’t need it.”  
The sensation that enveloped the kids was as if they were turned to stone all of a sudden. Only their eyes and mouths kept the ability to move, although even this was limited. The thing that followed only increased their anxiousness: their feet tore off the floor, and all three were turned around, still in the air.  
A tuxedo-wearing man with pepper red fringe squinted at them. He was holding a brown wand, the end of which was seemingly set on fire, but it didn’t harm either him or the wand. The kids guessed that he was somehow holding them in place, because when he moved the wand to the right, the room around them shifted as well.  
“Intruders?! Who was talking about intruders?” Another man, dressed in kind of a sleeveless space-themed outfit, rushed into view. He preferred odd hairstyles as well, for his fringe, similar to the first man’s, was forest green. Signe shivered, having spotted a knife with neon green blade in his fist. “Wow. This is the first time we’ve ever caught them.”  
“Stop that, Anti. We do not touch the wee ones.” The third man’s face and figure appeared to be extremely alike to the first ones’, but he was dressed in a more casual way (tee and shorts), armed with a toy-like gun and his color of preference was yellowish green. That’s when the trio saw that their signature colors referred not only to their hair, but to skin too, although it was seen from a certain angle only.  
“Wee ones, not wee ones – don’t care. Why would they arrive here without a reason, anyway?” the man named Anti snapped.  
“We – have – a – reason,” Felix mouthed, clutching the briefcase to his chest. “Six gems…”  
The trio fell like three sacks of potatoes when the telekinetic grip released them, although the red man did not hide his wand.  
“Six gems? Where did you find them?” the yellow man wondered.  
“Which six gems?” the red man demanded, the flame on the tip of his wand remaining, although significantly smaller.  
“All different, like your banister columns,” Felix wheezed. “Found them in a briefcase dug under the sand at the beach. Is that enough?”  
“Enough, but I’m afraid we’ll have to kill you for revealing our location,” Anti threatened.  
“Anti! Cease that, can’t you see how scared they are?!” the yellow man yelped at him, and his gun vanished from sight. “Come on. We’re not gonna hurt you. Even that green geek is not.”  
“Two on one? Unfair.” Anti pursed his lips.  
The yellow man helped Mark, Felix and Signe stand up:  
“I’m sorry for the shock, kiddos. Marvin’s responsible for alarm, and there were curious intruders. Too curious, if you know what I mean… Name’s Chase.”  
Mark was the first to see that there was an eye-shaped gem attached to the back of Chase’s left hand. Eye-shaped? Wait, wasn’t there an eye-shaped container in the briefcase? Hold on a second… The bowtie around Marvin’s, the red man’s, neck was decorated with a pentagonal gem. Anti also had one in the shape of an elongated hexagon on his chest.  
The shape of their gems exactly matched the containers in the briefcase.  
Where was the rhombus, then?  
“Anti’s simply bored,” Marvin joined in. “We don’t have many visitors, you know. Everyone’s afraid.”  
“I’m not,” Mark stated.  
“Neither am I,” Signe caught up, and it was true.  
“Na-ah,” Felix put in.  
“And you know why everyone’s afraid?” Chase caught up. “Return our friends to us, and you will see.”  
“Friends? What friends?” Felix mumbled, slowly losing his daredevilry.  
“In your hands.” Chase made a grabby motion with his hand adorned with the ‘third eye’. “Give it here.”  
Felix unsurely opened the briefcase and yelled with alert, for one of the gems contained in it – the semicircular brown one – soared up in the air, as if feeling being released, and emitted beams of dim light, not straight, but curvy, no wonder what it sounded like. It didn’t last long, for the light took the shape of a man in suspenders and fedora, whose hands and arms till elbows were black, although his color was brown of various shades. The semicircular gem did not go anywhere: it was stuck to the back of his right hand.  
“I hate reforming,” the new man stated and moved his hands along his torso from shoulders to hips. “Right, everything’s solid… Huh?”  
“Relax, Shawn, they brought you here,” Chase reassured the newcomer. “I guess you suffered the least, bro. Let me see…” He extracted the remaining gems from the suitcase and rolled them around in his palms. “No cracks. That’s great, this means they will reform soon.”  
“Reform? What… who… who are you?” Signe choked out of herself. Even though Marvin’s powers did not hold her in place anymore, her feet did not obey her urge to escape, as if petrified. The same must’ve happened to Mark and Felix.  
“Big bad aliens.” Anti sneered, showing sharp teeth (only now the kids saw that his ears differed from everyone else’s: while Marvin, Chase and Shawn had neat rounded ears, his were pointy, like elf’s, and had tunnels in them). “Seriously. Maybe not so big and not so BAAAAD, but aliens. Gems.”  
“But you look like humans… generally,” Mark objected.  
“Wrong. Ya look like us, we originated earlier,” Shawn interfered. “We were sent flyin’ from our homeworld, because… well… a classic scenario of faulty experiment results. Ya see, we’re literally rocks. Dis,” he pointed at his gem, “is our essence. A heart in your terms. Dey form in natural ways and then are extracted from da ground. And dere is a strict hierarchy dependin’ on gem type ya are.”  
“Logical,” Mark nodded. “So, hierarchy means there are leaders, and who’s the gem king? Diamond?”  
“Bingo! Yes, even four of dem,” Shawn went on. “Gems are sexless, unlike ya, but dey have gender. Most of da gems appear as females, but one of da Diamonds once learned about males while studying organic bein’s and secretly performed an experiment of creatin’ another Diamond. Every Diamond of four has unique abilities, and hers was crystallization – she could turn pebbles into somethin’ more precious. So, she created a male-lookin’ Brown Diamond, whose special ability was molecular extraction. He came with an idea ta use his power in order not ta waste resources, and in such a way he created us. But other Diamonds believed it ta be rubbish, cuz our gem kinds are far not as important or valuable as sapphires or agates, for example, and we were banished. Since den our small colony has been livin’ here.”  
“That’s unfair.” Signe flexed her toes, which started obeying her again. “I think this was a great idea. I mean… dust bunnies are large compared to dust particles.”  
“We’re not dust bunnies,” Marvin snapped.  
“Sorry, couldn’t think of a better comparison… Whoa!”  
This time the purple gem came to life, releasing an even stranger person out. This one had a fringe of matching shade of purple and was wearing a black-and-white striped shirt with too long sleeves and too wide neck leaving his left shoulder bare (just right, because the gem itself was located right there) and knee-length black pants showing ankles, the skin of which had differently-colored patches, reminding of stitched body of Frankenstein’s Monster. Moreover, his gem was surrounded with a circle of matching color.  
“I’m… alive…” the new one gurgled and wobbled, but Chase held him in place.  
“Don’t mind Robbie. He’s our lovely runt, as ya would say. An Off-Color. See his legs?” Shawn gestured at the newbie who could hardly keep himself in a vertical position. “Poor Jack of Diamonds had too little raw material to make him, and… you see what happened. A bit ga-ga, our Robbie, but he’s a total sweetie.”  
“Ro-bbie,” the purple man approved, and yet another gem revealed its inhabitant. This time it was the hexagonal indigo one, which took its place on the right palm of a person dressed like a gentleman from a silent movie (including vest, bowlhat, bowtie and monocle). The first thing that he did was literally extracting a cane umbrella from his gem.  
“Jameson’s weapon,” Chase explained. “Most Gems come out armed, but they do not choose their weapons, so…” He repeated the gentleman’s motion, having produced his gun once again from his gem (or, more exactly, his gem began emitting light which then formed the weapon). Meanwhile the named Jameson opened his umbrella, twirled it and, satisfied, made it vanish again.  
“Just like cats,” Mark hummed. “Kittens come out blind and deaf, but armed with sharp claws.”  
[EXACTLY]. These words were not spoken: they appeared to the right of the gentleman. Definitely, extracting weapons seemingly out of nowhere was only the beginning.  
“Jameson’s mute,” Marvin explained. “Almost the same story with Robbie. Jack of Diamonds considered his past mistakes and managed to make Jameson a proper Gem, but there was not enough raw material, so he had to immolate something. Thankfully, JJ quickly figured out a way of creating word holograms.”  
‘Holograms’ was the right word: only now Signe made out that the words in the air were appearing from Jameson’s gem, as if it was a projection device.  
“There are ten spaces in the briefcase.” Felix opened it again, showing the empty containers. “So this means the tenth one is your Jack of Diamonds?”  
“Yes,” Chase approved. “Shawn made a space for this gem just in case. It is believed that the outer shell of a Diamond cannot be broken, but one should be careful.”  
“Outer shell? You mean physical body?” Signe asked.  
“Uh-huh,” Chase nodded. “What happens to humans when they’re seriously injured?”  
“They need to get treatment,” Felix replied.  
“And they need rest,” Signe caught up.  
“Rest in order for their wounds to heal,” Mark finished.  
“In our case it works a bit differently. When out outer shells are damaged, we go ‘poof’, and all that remains is the gem itself. So, when a gem becomes strong enough to come out, its outer shell reappears. Again, just like a hologram, but with mass. Naturally, one can’t do much when locked in their gem… Oh! Oh! Jackie’s here with us again!”  
The latest referred to the orange round gem which emitted its carrier: a man in an orange jumpsuit with brown boots, gloves and belt (the gem now played the role of a buckle).  
“No fear, Jackieboy Man’s here!” he shot out, grinning in the most childish way and shaking his head to get the brownish orange fringe hanging from under his hood off his eyes behind a domino mask. “Fire in the whole!”  
“So, this is clear now,” Mark approved. “But if you all live here and everyone in the town is suspicious about you, how would you… dunno… buy food or something?”  
“Easy money,” Chase beamed, and his appearance changed right in front of the kids’ eyes: his skin became of human beige color instead of yellowish green, eyes turned blue and the hair on the sides of his head changed to dark brown. “Another perk of being a faulty experiment result. Jack of Diamonds also figured out a way to change our colors. See, most gems are able to shape-shift, but they always keep their natural colors. Our range of transformation is limited, but it gives us the palette change. Do I look like a human?”  
Signe nodded: right now the only thing hinting about Chase’s otherworldly nature was the gem which did not go anywhere from the back of his left hand. But that could be hidden with gloves or a bandage maybe.  
“Wait. How does it happen that you haven’t been caught yet if you live here for such a long time? Someone should’ve seen a UFO crash or else,” Felix suddenly stated. “And you need to eat too, I presume…”  
“We don’t need ta,” Shawn objected. “If ya need food ta live, we don’t. But some of us enjoy your life processes like eatin’ or sleepin’…”  
“I want cookies,” Jackie interrupted, paying no heed to the human intruders.  
“Maybe dere are some in da jar, go and see,” Shawn informed, and Jackie, squealing with delight, set his foot to the kitchen. “I see what ya mean. Ta eat you gotta work, eh? We do work.”  
“Next time pay some more attention when purchasing milkshakes,” Chase chuckled and gave the kids a big wink.  
Before any of them could realize what that meant, one more gem glowed, the teal one, and released a man whose outfit resembled a space-themed doctor’s uniform complete with a bouffant cap. The first thing he did was the same with Jameson’s, although his weapon appeared to be a scalpel.  
“Perrrrrfect. All solid. Iz everyone here? I knew it. S34N needz to analyze everyzing before revealing himself.” His tone was much more buzzing than his comrades’, as if he was a robot in human disguise… or a robot in gem disguise? All these revelations made Signe dizzy. “Ah, I see. Little humanz here. Who let zem in?”  
“If it were not for them, Schneep, you would’ve had to bump your way out of the shelter,” Marvin informed, nodding at the briefcase. “One more left? Perhaps I should give S34N a little push to come out.”  
He twirled his wand, having made the final gem, the triangular cyan one, soar out of the ‘shelter’, and critically examined it from top to bottom.  
“Hmm, no cracks, no damages. Come out, S34N!”  
Signe took her thoughts about Schneep’s voice being buzzing back, for the first thing the newcomer did after reforming was emitting an electric ‘BZZZT’. This one was dressed in a plain dark grey tee and black pants, unlike most of his pals.  
“S34N ready for duty,” he reported and made an unfamiliar gesture: bending his hands in such a way that they formed a diamond shape.  
“Relax, S34N, Jack of Diamonds is not here. And even if he was, he asked you not to do so,” Marvin reminded.  
“Eh… if we have already seen all of you, does this mean we’ll have to meet your Jack of Diamonds as well?” Felix asked.  
Eight pairs of eyes (Jackie still hadn’t returned from the kitchen) focused on him, and Anti was the one to form the idea that they all shared:  
“Not yet, buddy boy. This is a secret place, like in a videogame. If you tell anyone, your mouths will explode.”  
“Stop it, Anti, only I am able to pull such tricks, and I don’t want to,” Marvin interfered.


	2. Being Human

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All three children learn something new: Signe - that gems stick together, Felix - that there are unsolved problems, and Mark - that there are MORE.

Signe knew that thinking about one and the same thing all the time often led to seeing ‘approvals’ where there weren’t any. However, none of those took place until some days after meeting the alien bunch, when the girl was going home on a Saturday afternoon.  
Signe jumped back right on time not to be crushed by a bundle in a striped shirt that flopped onto the ground after tripping over the doorstep of the closest shop.  
“One more failure, and consider yourself out!” sounded from the door before it was slammed shut. The striped shirt seemed very familiar to Signe, and her guesses approved when she saw the face of the clumsy person. Yes, it was Robbie the Off-Color. Frankly, now his skin was of solid (unhealthily grayish) color instead of being ‘patchwork’, his eyes were cloudy blue and there were very convincing stitches on his joints and neck. But it was him. Totally him.  
Robbie stood up, rubbed his face clean with his sleeve and stumbled away. He was walking so slowly that Signe had no trouble catching up with him despite being shorter.  
“Hey Robbie.”  
“Ah?” Robbie stared at Signe, not recognizing her at first, but then beamed, showing his pearly white teeth (thank you very much, they were not rotten). “Hi Signe.”  
“Are you hurt? What was that?”  
“Not… hurt. Mr. Derekson… always… lashes at me. I’m… too… clumsy.”  
Signe recalled Chase’s statement about ‘easy money’.  
“You work in his shop?”  
“Yes.”  
“But if he lashes at you like that… it’s horrible, Robbie. Why don’t you try and search for another job?”  
Robbie gave Signe the closest equivalent of a tolerant smile.  
“It’s… the only one… I stayed at… for longest. At least… I won’t… hurt anybody… there.”  
“I doubt that you want to be hurt yourself.”  
“Don’t… want. But I also… don’t want… to be… a burden.”  
Now that was understandable. Signe knew it very well that in serious adult world the first indicator of being anything but a burden was earning money. But her heart still bled for Robbie.   
“Schneeple’s… the best… doctor… you could imagine. Everyone… say’s… so. Chase’s… a local… star. No party… begins without… his cocktails… and coffee drinks. Jackie’s… a stuntman. Really… cool. And Marvin…”  
“Listen, Robbie, we should probably talk to your brothers. I’m sure they can handle it… What’s that look supposed to mean? You haven’t told them?”  
“Told what?”  
Robbie rolled his eyes when the silent movie duo – Shawn and Jameson – appeared from around the corner. They were in their human images as well, although Jameson’s hair was of unnatural sea green color (the only detail standing out of his gentleman appearance), and Shawn looked as if he stepped directly out of a sepia picture: he wasn’t going to give up his trademark brown colors even now.  
“What… are… you… doing… here?” Robbie asked, making even more pauses between the words, perhaps due to being surprised.  
“One of da performances was cancelled, and we got ta get home sooner,” Shawn explained. Jameson nodded in approval. “Gosh, Robbie, ya ploughed da ground again? What now?”  
“His employer was bullying him,” Signe informed, even though Robbie desperately shook his head.  
“Bullying?! Why?” Shawn shot out, his fingers becoming visibly darker.  
“Clumsy…” Robbie stared at his feet, and his cheeks turned purplish. Most probably, it was his kind of blushing.  
[I KNOW DEREKSON. I’M SURPRISED THAT SOMEONE STILL WORKS AT HIS PLACE.] Jameson casually expressed his opinion, for they had already passed the busiest streets and no one was there to catch him red-handed (or blue-handed in his case). [I’M CERTAIN THAT YOU ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST, ROBBIE. WHAT WAS THE CASE?]  
After digging the ground with his foot tip for some moments Robbie dared to share the truth:  
“Couldn’t find… the required… thread colors. There… were… none left. But Derekson… stated… there were some…”  
“Bosses know best,” Shawn summed up. “Really, what a geeked-up man. Gotta give him da dessert.”  
“Don’t… hurt… him,” Robbie objected.  
[ANOTHER PROOF THAT ROBBIE IS THE KINDEST OF ALL OF US,] Jameson informed. [ANYONE ELSE WOULD’VE SLICED DEREKSON’S SKULL OPEN.]  
“No worries, Robbie, no one will get hurt. Perhaps only morally,” Shawn finished, ruffling Robbie’s hair.  
This statement proved to be true the next day. Signe didn’t know why she made her way to Derekson’s shop again. Maybe it was just her curiosity, maybe she wanted to see how Robbie was doing. For now, he was doing just fine: he was helping a customer select the needed size of needles.  
“You’re the best in needles and threads with all those stitches.” This was said by a girl of about four or five, who was accompanying her older relative. Robbie wasn’t offended with this statement, just gave the child a smile and went on with his work.  
Shawn hadn’t been lying about the ‘dessert’, for Signe found him hiding between a pile of construction waste and a nearby house. He was performing some kind of his Gem stuff: two large black blobs were soaring above his black-stained hands.  
“And I’m just havin’ fun with ink,” Shawn casually informed after spotting that he had company. “Got no weapon, but got dis stuff.”  
“What are you gonna do?” Signe asked, knitting her eyebrows together in concern.  
Shawn nodded at the windows of Derekson’s shop:  
“Robbie’s dere, so Derekson won’t be able to blame it on him. Besides, only Robbie knows how to get dis extra-sticky stuff off things, so… I guess that’s a victory for Gems. Or at least some quiet time for Robbie… Shazam!”  
The blobs rocketed forward and practically exploded after the impact with glass, having possibly blinded everyone inside.  
“Ew.” Signe wrinkled her nose.  
“Ya ain’t seen nothin’,” Shawn smirked and wiggled his fingers. The ink flowed down the windows, but not completely: part of it remained at the place, forming huge letters. STOP DRILLING ROBBIE. However, Shawn wasn’t going to settle on this.  
“Robert! What in the world…”  
Splash!  
Derekson’s head twitched, his face vanished under a layer of sharp-smelling substance. Robbie meekly raised his hands in a gesture of peace, at the same time showing that they were completely clean.   
“Shawn, you’re only heating up the situation,” Signe hissed. But Shawn wasn’t listening: hardly had Derekson opened his mouth to scold Robbie when one more ink blob stuck between his jaws.  
“Gobble it up, Mr. Derekson, for you care about da poor guy so much.”  
Unable to bear it anymore, Signe squeezed out of the hiding place and cautiously entered the shop, even though her knees were trembling. The window glass immediately became clean, as if washed a moment ago: Shawn must’ve decided to remove the threatening writing. Robbie was curled up under the counter, hugging his knees and mumbling to himself, while Derekson ran into the farther room of the shop to get rid of the ink.  
“Robbie?”  
The named one shook, but then relaxed upon seeing the girl. And only then Signe could see that this ink attack influenced him as well: almost all of his stitches were gone from sight, having changed into scars. White healed scars instead of thick black threads.  
“Ww… wohw…” Robbie mumbled, marveling at the sight of his new human skin. “Shhhhawwwwn?..”  
“Yes,” Signe nodded, not knowing if she should be enraged at Shawn or glad for Robbie.  
“I’ve… never… managed… to hide… the stitches… until now,” Robbie admitted. “Do I… look… better?”  
“Tots,” Signe approved. “Much better.”  
She hid behind a roll of fabric when Derekson – hair sticking in all directions, hands covered in ink, as if he was wearing thin leather gloves – entered the front room again. Robbie did not respond, pretending to be counting the remaining sewing spools in one of the boxes.  
“Handle the shop till the end of the day, Robert, because I won’t be able to show face like this,” Derekson muttered. “But if the report contains even the tiniest flaw, I will know it, understood?”  
“Right,” Robbie responded and let out a sigh of relief when the front door closed behind Derekson. “Such days… are worth… working here.”

***

  
The Nero café was Felix’s favourite mainly because no one was there to needle him in regard to his skinny stature and large beverage portions he tended to take. What was he to do if it was the only thing that could keep him alert and prevent him from sweating like a horse? And, of course, the local drinks were delicious.  
After Felix received his blackberry lemonade, the barista’s shift must’ve been over, because he left and no one other than Chase took his place. In a moment Felix sensed that there was something wrong, for, even though Chase gave the visitors smiles, they were stiff and more polite than sincere.  
Only when the café was empty, Felix scampered to the counter:  
“Chase, I…”  
“First of all, hello,” Chase replied sluggishly, washing the details of the coffee machine.  
“Hello,” Felix grunted. “Why are you this sad, Chase?”  
“That’s none of your business, kid.” Chase set the details back to their proper place, having almost dropped one of them in the process. Felix’s mind looked through all the possible actions and selected the only one that seemed fit, even though senseless and rascal-ish: as soon as Chase vanished in the utility room, he snatched his wallet from the jacket hanging in the corner. Of course. Cell phone, flash, and the wallet was back in its proper place.  
Having purchased a coconut milkshake (just for show, really; Felix didn’t even feel its taste), the kid examined the snapped picture of the photo kept in Chase’s wallet. It depicted a perfect moment of the fun day: human Chase with two children, a girl and a boy, on a roller coaster ride.  
No way.  
The resemblance was too striking to ignore. So this meant that those gem aliens could have children with humans?.. Felix zoomed in and revealed that both kids had identical birthmarks on the same places – the eye-shaped ones on the backs of their left hands. Tattoos could not be inherited (even though Felix knew a person who genuinely believed it was so), and those could.   
“No wonder he’s sad,” Felix told himself. “Bet their mother had no idea who Chase is. And when she found out… Gah. Beastly, just beastly. Good that there’s me. Search mission initiated!”

***

  
Mark was pretty sure that he found the working places of almost all the gems in town. Shawn and Jameson worked in a local theater, Robbie was a seller at the tailor shop, Chase was a bartender in a café, S34N worked in a pharmacy, Schneeple, of course, was a doctor (a surgeon, to put it exactly), Jackie and Marvin were the organizers of parties (mostly for children) and Anti was a movie technician. But still one of them was missing. Mark was sure that he saw the tenth person sharing his face with them, but being unlike any of them, although he could not recall where exactly he had seen it. And today his curiosity became so intense that he set his foot directly to the gems’ house.  
Luckily, no one was home. Or was there anyone? Mark turned his attention to the door with the star. The blue end of compass arrow in its middle was fixed on the top beam now. Could that mean that someone was in there? Mark cautiously knocked on it. Wait a second. Why wasn’t the front door closed? Weren’t the gems afraid of burglars?  
It was too late to ask, for movement sounded from behind the door, and it slid to the side. The first thing that Mark saw was some kind of a round rock covered in dark brown – weeds? Grass? Leaves?..  
Hair.  
That was hair. And that was not a rock, it was a head, the height of which was almost twice more than Mark’s height.  
The kid froze when enormous brown eyes with diamond-shaped pupils stared right into his soul: the head turned to show its face.   
“Hmm, so you’re one of those intruders, boy? Interesting,” the giant mused, crawling from the door. So this is why the ceilings were so high here! After completely getting into the room and shifting into a sitting position with his knees almost pressed to his chest, the enormous man unceremoniously, but carefully took Mark by his waist and placed him on his knee. Mark did not resist simply because his body did not obey him, being in the state of shock. Really, this was too much.  
Mark attempted to return to his usual rational condition. How tall could this man be? Perhaps like a fourteen-storey or even more. Brown Diamond, he recalled. Jack of Diamonds, clever. More of Chocolate Diamond, for this was the main shade of his space-styled outfit, and the main part of it was the rhombus-shaped gem right above the place where the human heart was located.  
“So very interesting,” the giant repeated.  
“Excuse me, what is interesting?” Mark asked.  
“You look pretty like my fellow in misery. Could you possibly be a Gem in disguise?”  
“N-no! I-I’m totally ordinary! I mean…”  
“Hahah, just kidding. But you do look like him.”  
“Who?”  
“I’ve heard that my little pals told you about the experiment that created me,” Jack of Diamonds explained. “To be honest, there were two Diamonds created after the experiment. It was not only me, but a Black Diamond as well, and he looked like you, but adult.”  
“Well, they say each living creature has a lookalike,” Mark informed. “Why can’t mine be an alien?.. But why isn’t he here with you, that Black Diamond? I guess he was not welcome as well if you call him your fellow in misery.”  
“That’s it. White Diamond despised him even more than me, because, you know, black is not a color, it’s the absence of color, and white is the color containing all of them… yes, that sounds crooked, but that’s it.”  
“Now that’s some fine logic… And could he do anything remarkable?”  
“He had a talent opposite to mine: if I can extract certain molecules from the surrounding world to create something, he uses parts of himself to do so and then replenished them. Don’t worry, he’s got a gang made out of himself. Literally.”  
“A gang? Like yours?”  
“His is even freakier in some way. Supreme Diamonds had another reason to believe that he was worse than me when they saw that one of his first creations was corrupted.”  
Corrupted? Creating something out of yourself? Mark felt dizzy. Meanwhile Brown Diamond examined Mark from head to toe once again and gnawed on his bottom lip:  
“Guess you do feel uncomfortable. Hang on for a bit…”  
He carefully placed Mark onto the couch in the corner, and his outer features started turning blurry until everything except for his gem was gone, having changed into… twisting light? This was the first expression that came to Mark’s mind when he saw it. Eventually the ‘hologram with mass’ took another shape and size: now it was a pale man of average height and skinny stature dressed in a blue hoodie and baggy vinous pants.  
“Almost mastered it,” Jack of Diamonds stated, touching his head (his fringe did not go anywhere). “Didn’t you think I was going to be stuck here forever?.. Mm-mm. Do I look like a human?”  
“You do,” Mark nodded. “Really do.”  
“Now the main thing is not to get poofed in front of audience.”


	3. All the Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gem boys are preparing for a grand show, and they've got everything planned... do they?

The librarian must think I’m crazy, Felix was thinking while feverishly looking through the albums. Internet was not the best helper here: the Gems shared one profile for all in social networks and none of them had a separate one. They did not share personal information as well and on most photos they were in groups of at least two. It was a fine concealment: a gang of geeky, but well-meaning brothers. After all, it was almost so.  
“And this means the tenth one is their Jack,” Felix mused, having counted them all once again. The tenth one was seemingly the most joyful one, whose gem never stood out, even though the others’ could be spotted at some of the photos, like Chase’s, Jameson’s and Shawn’s, even though they two did their best to hide them. Jackie always wore a belt of special construction so that his gem appeared to be its buckle, while Marvin made his gem similar to a bowtie decoration.  
The Internet pictures showed that there had been a period when Chase hadn’t been joining his brothers, and one of them gave one more hardly seen hint: the timetable board on the wall (this photo had been taken at the gems’ house) said “CHASE: AT THE PHOTO SESSION” (though it could be spotted only when zooming in). So Felix collected all the photo session albums related to this period of time from the library and now was feverishly studying them.  
Felix almost regretted his decision after the twelfth album. Damn Murphy’s laws. Of course, the last one to be taken contained the needed pictures. They weren’t colorful or dramatic or boasting, they were… pure. This was the best word.  
“Gah, and who said that only mothers need their children?” the kid commented aloud. Chase had participated in several photo sessions together with those very two children that were depicted on the photo in his wallet. Sometimes posing as fairytale and mythical creatures (Felix giggled at the underwater one with Chase and the children as merpeople – completely with very convincing tails!), sometimes fooling around or just doing something together. Then the kids had been about… three and five years old, right? So this means that now they were to attend schools. This was one of the reasons why Felix had borrowed school almanacs as well.  
“It’s about the pretending, so much for the happy ending…” Felix was glad that his parents still hadn’t caught him awake in the dead of night: he hadn’t caught it when midnight had come. Although he appeared to be not the only midnight walker: his phone received a message from Mark.  
“STILL NOT ASLEEP? THE GEM BOYS WILL NEED HELP ON THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW. WANNA COME?”  
Should’ve set the invisible mode, Felix thought to himself. The day after tomorrow? Should be enough time, he decided and replied:  
“I’M IN.”

“Now just one more shadow silhouette, and the greeting will be complete…”  
Signe didn’t know if she should be afraid or amazed at Shawn’s ability to manipulate ink. Today the gem boys were preparing for a grand show: the local hotel was getting ready to a party with honored guests and their children, and their responsibility was mostly the spectacular introduction and controlling the first day’s process. Jameson was rehearsing a mime act (‘ladies love it’, as Anti put it), while Marvin was practicing fire tricks – not with real fire, of course, it was the so-called ‘soft flame’ which was warm, but did not burn anything, a scarlet mix of light and fire.  
“All right, three more cameras here, here and here.” Meanwhile Jack of Diamonds, being in his human version, was instructing Chase in regard to placing cameras in the hotel hall in order to record the action. Wish all bosses would treat their charges like this, Signe thought, having recalled the Robbie situation. By the way, about Robbie: he was busy tailoring costumes together with Anti. It appeared to be true that the ‘zomboy’, as his brothers referred to him, was excellent when it came to work that required attention and concentration. His being slow helped him in this case.  
“Signe!” Schneep called out, looking at the over the list he was making (which was so long that its other end was brushing the floor). “You have idea about ingredientz of food, don’t you?”  
“Eh…”  
“Vat food iz made of,” Schneep replied through his teeth. “Humanz know much more about it zan we gemz. Studying doezn’t mean knoving…”  
“Schneep’s got the list of preferences,” Jackie explained. “He wants you to help him to figure out what’s for who.”  
“Triflez are not triflez,” Schneep droned. “I could’ve put ze information in my databaze, but paper iz more reliable, for not I am going to sort zat food out. Only Jackie is able to do it on time vith hiz zpeed.”  
Jackie lost no time proving his brother’s statement: he ran three laps around the house in mere seconds, having almost crashed into the entrance door in the process.  
“Hope you von’t do zat again,” Schneep droned.  
Signe, glad that she was part of the action now, set off to examining the list of room numbers, names of guests, kinds of treats and – of course – ‘strictly prohibited substances’. At first this work seemed tedious to her, but doing homework sometimes was even worse, so she and Schneep finished the sorting quite soon, and the new list was given to S34N for verification, for he had a database device similar to Schneep’s, and they both could search for information any moment. It was much more convenient than usual cell phones, for at least the floating screen that appeared after the activation was larger.  
The practical part definitely was much more difficult, and Signe almost regretted volunteering to help the gem brothers (she told her parents that she was going to go on a sleepover because it was going to take place at night). Felix and Mark came as well (the former one shamelessly admitted that he had escaped without permission, while Mark had used the same excuse as Signe). They three arrived almost at the same time and caught Jackie attempting to convince Schneep about something.  
“I promise I won’t sing again, Schneep! Come on!”  
“Vait till Jack of Diamondz arrivez, he’ll give ze permission,” Schneep replied.  
“What are they on about?” Mark sneakily asked Chase, who entered the hotel hall, holding a huge roll of wire.  
“Ah, Jackie wants some action again,” Chase replied. “Some music, to be honest. But the last time he picked up the tune and almost crashed the chandelier in process, so Schneep is against doing it this time.”  
Mark turned his head up and stared at the crystal chandelier (to be honest, it reminded him of a hornet’s nest for some reason). No doubt, it would’ve been a jingle-jangle if it crashed!  
“Okay guys, everyone ready?” Jack of Diamonds entered the hall, and the rest nine gems momentarily lined in front of him. “Roll call!”  
“Marvin the Magnificent! Spinel!”  
“Robbie!.. Purple… Chalcedony!”  
“AntiSepticEye! Chrome Diopside!”  
“Henrik von Schneeplestein! Celestite!”  
“S34N! Indicolite!”  
“Jackieboy Man! Spessortine!”  
[JAMESON JACKSON! CORDIERITE!]  
“Chase Brody! Chrysoberyl!”  
“Shawn Flynn! Dravite!”  
Every gem changed into his real form after saying his name. Only Jack of Diamonds remained in his human body for obvious reasons. The kids also spoke their names.  
“All right everyone. You know the main rule: do whatever you want, but the main thing is keeping quiet,” Jack of Diamonds ordered.  
“And what about earphones? I want music,” Jackie whimpered. Schneep glared daggers at him, but Jack of Diamonds pursed his lips and answered:  
“It’s your last chance, Jackie. Next time you throw a curve ball, I’ll allow Schneep to poof you and lock you up for a month! Got it?”  
“I won’t bear a month inside my gem…”  
“So play nice!” Jack of Diamonds sealed and produced a handful of wireless earpieces, all of similar shape, but of different colors. Jackie, having suppressed an excited squeal, pushed his one into his right ear and dashed away.  
Marvin, however, behaved much calmer.  
“Our job now is to hide these six cameras in the chandelier,” he explained. “None of us is delicate enough, so I’ll have to ask you, Signe. All right?”  
“Okay, but where’s the ladder?”  
Marvin gave her a bow, and two streams of red fire, similar to that which surrounded his wand when he used his powers, rushed from behind his back, having taken the shape of flaming wings.  
“Some gems have water ones, and even here I’m a weirdo,” he grinned. “No worries, nothing will be burnt in the process.”  
“You sure I won’t fall?” Signe asked, unable to tear her eyes off his new limbs. Marvin did a twirl in the air:  
“No worries. I’m not Jackie to get distracted.”  
“Said da one who almost cracked Robbie. Several times,” Shawn teased. He was busy creating graceful ink patterns of trees and birds on the walls. Marvin lolled his tongue at his pal and instructed Signe to put all the mini cameras in a bag on her belt, then carefully held her by her middle and soared up – not too quickly, but rapidly, so Signe found herself hanging in the air, helplessly moving her feet in the air.  
“I’m used to telekinesis and stuff, but I’m not great at controlling my fingers, and only I am able to fly here,” Marvin explained. “Now fix the first camera right there on the beam… Excellent! I see you got the hang of it!”  
Signe blew raspberries, not knowing if the bad pun was intentional. Meanwhile Mark was helping Schneep and Jameson apply mint-smelling liquid to all the surfaces: it was supposed to keep the furniture and ornaments clean and shiny for a long time. But the main problem was that those surfaces were to be clean before applying the liquid, and Shawn’s ink work left tiny, but present spots there and here, so Felix and Chase were removing them before Mark, Schneep and Jameson could get to the required area.  
After Signe finished installing the cameras on the chandelier, a new kind of work was found for her: helping Robbie with the greeting sets. Every room was to have one, and they all were different depending on the tastes of the guests. Signe almost gave up after the first one (a bouquet of white roses, a basket of tropical fruits, two boxes of peppermint drops and champagne of certain class), for arranging it appeared to be much more difficult than it seemed. As Schneep had stated, ‘trifles were not trifles’. Robbie worked slowly, checking with the list every minute, but the first result was impressive. However, soon enough Signe grew familiar with it, and the process got a bit faster: she took up selecting the items for sets and Robbie was arranging them.  
“Yummy,” Robbie gurgled when Signe produced a metal cup with a strange rod with three steps in the middle.  
“What is it?”  
“A chocolate… fountain. Needs to… be… warm. Jackie… will… do.”  
The first statement almost made Signe drool: she had seen chocolate fountains, but never had a chance to try. It was already 2 A.M. when they finished their work.  
“Now for the delivery,” Jack of Diamonds instructed. “The guests will arrive in the morning, and this means that fragile items are to stay fresh for some more hours.” He gave Felix, Signe and Mark three bottles of liquid, this time pale yellow. “Jackie will bring the greeting sets to the required rooms, and you three will sprinkle this over flowers and fruits. Don’t worry, this won’t harm them, it will just freeze them in time for a while, metaphorically speaking. And… S34N?”  
“Right here, my Diamond.” S34N made the same ‘diamond’ gesture that he had shown when the trio had first met him.  
“How many times have I told you not to call me that? Anyway, I want you to check the rooms. Shawn, Schneep and Jameson must’ve finished their tasks there. Do you remember the list?”  
“I have it in my database,” S34N droned.  
“Should’ve not used the cyborg patterns when making you,” Jack of Diamonds sighed.  
Signe, Felix and Mark decided to keep together, for dim corridors of this place made them all shiver on the inside, and being followed by a robot-like creature made it even more eerie. But this also kept them awake. And the conserving liquid smelled fine – freshly and sweetly at the same time.  
All the time while the trio was busy with their task, S34N didn’t say a word. Only when the last room’s door closed and the bottles were almost empty, he sighed and spoke:  
“All correct. I didn’t suppose that Jackie would not make any mistakes.”  
“Do you really have such mean opinion of him?” Felix asked.  
“I guess you would call him the most human of us,” S34N droned. “It’s human to err.”  
Signe didn’t feel tired while she was working. But, strangely, she didn’t remember anything after having completed the greeting set task. The only things that remained in her mind were the words of one of the songs booming in the earpiece Jack of Diamonds had given her and pieces of conversation.  
“All the way  
To freaking victory town,  
All the way,  
Feels good to be a winner every now and then,  
I believe in you…”  
“Gosh, they’re tripping over their own feet.”  
“Careful, I haven’t made dose patterns for dem to be ruin’d.”  
“Sorr… ee…”  
“All the way, keep on dancing,  
All the way, keep on flying…”  
“Perfect. No worries, I’ll wake them up just in time.”  
“Knowing your punctuality…”  
“Who is it? What are they on about?” Signe was thinking, but her brain refused to keep on working despite the encouragements sounding from the earpiece.


	4. Pink Psycho on Parade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Look out, look out, pink psycho on parade!

Mark opened one eye and stared at his watch. 5:30 AM. Perfect. Sleeping on, then. Who closed the window?.. Wait. Wait wait wait. Hotel. Preparations. Greeting sets. All the gem boys.  
ALL THE WAY!  
Mark rapidly sat up and immediately flopped on his back, having not kept his balance. It was almost impossible here: he didn’t know what had happened, but he was inside a giant pink bubble soaring in midair, similar to a soap bubble, but much larger and with such thick walls that the kid couldn’t make out any sounds from the outside.  
“Hey! Hey!” Mark yelled, hitting the bubble walls with his fists. “Get me outta here! That’s not funny!”  
Not only he had gotten trapped: he managed to make out two more such bubbles at almost the same height with his. Doubtlessly, those were Signe and Felix caught.  
Once more – wait. A dark silhouette was crawling up the wall. Just like Spider-Man. But Spider-Man was a fictional character, and this one was very real. Mark squinted. Judging by the huge knife the figure was holding, it was Anti. After reaching the required height, he jumped on the top of one of the bubbles and cut it through, then bounced onto the second bubble. The figure with fiery wings – Marvin – caught the bubble remains together with their prisoner and lowered them onto the floor.  
“Wow, you are really acrobatic,” Mark said when the neon green blade cut through the top of his prison.  
“It’ll be great when I use my acrobatic skills to kill someone, revive him and then kill him again,” Anti snapped and bounced down, back first. A moment later Mark found himself tangled in the mess of pink substance: Marvin caught him in not the best way. Definitely.  
“Pink dried goo,” Chase wrinkled, having pinched a piece off one of the ex-bubbles and squishing it in his hands. “I wonder who of them was a sneak this time.”  
“Don’t look at me. I didn’t tell Edward anyzing becauze I know about the possible rezultz,” Schneep stated. All ten gem boys were here and ready to act.  
[NOBODY’S BLAMING YOU, HENRIK,] Jameson interfered (he was already dressed in his mime outfit). [WE KNOW THAT YOU NEVER BLAB IT ALL.]  
“Excuse me, but what is going on?” Felix asked, shaking the remains of pink stuff off his clothing.  
“That’s Warfstache. His kind of work. Really, I don’t care if he’s already corrupted, I’ll smash him into a thousand pieces!” Anti was restlessly walking from corner to corner, stabbing the air with his knife from time to time.  
When the kids only blinked as a response, Jack of Diamonds hurried to explain:  
“Remember, kids, I told you about the Black Diamond? Ah, I told only Mark about him… Well, he’s kinda like me, but with an opposite talent: he uses himself to create new gems. But his charges appeared to be even more messed up than mine, and if they’re here, it may mean only one thing – disaster. They don’t really obey Black Diamond, they’ve got another person to admire. And if Wilford Warfstache – aka corrupted Morganite – is here, this means screaming blue murder. I mean it.”  
“And who’s that person that they admire?” Signe asked.  
“It’s impossible to tell if you haven’t seen him… Okay guys, all to your places! Operation: Picture Perfect assemble!”  
Schneep and S34N momentarily sprinkled the bubble remains with purplish liquid, having made them disintegrate (really: all that left was some kind of pinkish steam, and nothing more), Jameson rushed outside, Jackie set off checking if the cameras worked properly, and Marvin began the most peculiar action: he created some kind of a hovering platform out of his red fire.  
“Robbie! Kids! Wanna see? Get on!” he invited, having bounced onto it. “Don’t worry, it won’t hurt!”  
“Won’t everyone see it?” Mark asked, cautiously getting on the platform after Robbie (who was impatiently waggling his fingers). Marvin shook his head:  
“Nope! Just get on, and you’ll see!”  
When Felix and Signe were on as well, Marvin let another stream of red flames out of his wand, which formed kind of a glass dome over them with a hole on its top. The ‘floor’ also turned see-through.  
“Now it can’t be seen or recorded, as well as us,” he explained. The magical construction slowly soared up similarly to an elevator. “We can watch, but don’t make too much noise, okay?”  
In a short while the hotel employees were at their places, while the gems were gone from sight, except for Jameson, who entered the action as soon as the first visitor – a woman with a suitcase – entered.  
“Now this is an exam of cleanliness,” Marvin whispered, pointing at his brother who stood on one knee and gave the visitor a red rose, much to her delight. “See? His knees are clean, and this means we’ve done a great job.”  
Indeed, Jameson’s white pants remained spotless. After the visitor got registered at the reception, he led her into the corridor to show her where her room was. The next one to act was Shawn, hiding between a huge palm tree planted in a pot.  
“How isn’t he seen?” Mark whispered.  
“Shawn’s not only able to manipulate ink, he’s also a pretty good hider,” Marvin explained. “He’s got a connection with shadows.”  
It was true: the kids knew that Shawn was there and could see him, but his silhouette was becoming somehow blurry from time to time, and considering his sepia-toned outfit, he was almost invisible, especially if no attention was paid. His actions included not only images, but sounds as well: chirping and rustling of leaves followed after the group of visitors, a family, entered, and the ink trees and birds on the walls began slightly moving, as if in animation.  
Jameson and Shawn went on acting one after the other until all the guests arrived. Both weren’t showing any signs of being tired, but when Shawn’s ink creations stopped their motion, he let out a long sigh and vanished. Just vanished – all that was left was his gem, which Jameson sneakily picked up and put into his pocket.  
“Stage one complete,” Marvin informed. “Stage two: procedures.” He tapped on his gem, having made it emit a hologram similar to Jameson’s, but depicting S34N’s concentrated face. “Have all the cameras functioned correctly?”  
“Affirmative,” S34N approved. “Editing on me.”  
Marvin tapped on the bottom table of his gem, and the receiver changed from S34N to Schneep:  
“Is the procedure list ready?”  
“Almozt, juzt a few pointz to work out,” Schneep replied.  
“Excuse me, but what are those procedures?” Signe wondered.  
“Swimming, massages and everything luxurious to relax after a long way. Now, kids… and you Robbie too… you may be free till the evening. I’m gonna be a star there, and Chase too. But don’t wander around too much, okay?”  
The kids had a chance to make sure that Marvin was ‘going to be a star’ – they were surprised to be allowed to enter the hotel stage area without any ado until they saw that it was none other than S34N accompanying them. The action was almost on fire there: Marvin with Anti and Shawn as his helpers was entertaining a group of children and teens with various holographic and realistic tricks, while Chase’s motions were too fast for the eyes to follow – he was mixing various drinks one by one. The trio quickly found great places to watch: Felix got to Chase’s bar, Signe crept to a balcony from where she couldn’t be spotted and Mark selected a place behind the musical equipment at the back of the stage.  
“Now, sweet for the kids and delicious for the adults!” Chase juggled with three glasses, practically tossed them onto the bar counter and switched to juggling with bottles, managing to add their ingredients to glasses at the same time. “Annnnd just a little bit of liquor for the aroma. Enjoy your drinks, ladies and gents!”  
But it didn’t come to further enjoying the drinks, for all of a sudden the place went silent, as if sound was switched off. Felix didn’t even dare to speak: instead, he typed a message on his cell phone and showed it to Chase. “WHAT IS GOING ON?”  
Chase pointed at something outside with his eyes, and Felix peeked out, attempting to stay invisible. What he saw almost made him fall off his chair: a man dressed in a strict black suit and almost two times taller than an average human was walking through the crowd, tapping on the ground with his cane. Not only his height was remarkable: he appeared to have grey skin, four arms and two pairs of eyes, brown top and dark blue bottom. Hold on, were those… yes, those were. His red tie was adorned with two gems – one in the area of the man’s sternal notch and the other in the belly-button area. Two gems? Why two of them? Each of Jack of Diamonds’ gang members had one gem.  
The man casually walked through the crowd making way for him (no wonder: nobody wanted even to stay close to him, no talking about touching him) and scanned the heads under him. It was impossible to understand what his face was expressing: his eyebrows (there was one pair of them) were knitted together in irritation, making the brown eyes look angry, but the blue eyes stayed indifferent. Either enraged or not caring about anything.  
“Worry not. I’m not a comic book villain,” the man spoke in a deep, but echo-y voice, and made the crowd gasp in horror by making a complete twist with his top half, while his legs stayed still. Then he made his way to the bar. “The comic book villain parody is somewhere around here, and I am to fix it.”  
He sniffed the air, then abruptly reached under the counter, grabbed hiding Felix by the collar of his jacket and effortlessly raised him into the air.  
“HEY! I’m not your villain parody! I’m Felix Kjellberg!” Felix yelled, thrashing in attempts to kick the strange man.  
“That remains to be seen,” the man grimly replied and pulled a piece of something pink out of Felix’s hair. “Pink dried stuff. Smells like cotton candy. Now it’s clear that you’re not him, because the real one would’ve absorbed it…” He let Felix go and put three of his hands on his hips, the fourth one twirling his cane. “As I’ve said, that remains to be seen.”  
He eyed the crowd once again, then reached out and grabbed another person, the one in pink suspenders, by the collar and whacked him with the top of his cane. The caught one reacted with changing his quite human appearance to… well, the best word to describe it was Technicolor. And, for some reason, Quasimodo, even though this person was not a hunchback. He looked like a statue made by a sculptor who had almost no idea what human should look like: the first thing Felix saw were hands. Lumps of hands almost four times bigger than they should’ve been, fingers ending with hooked claws. The shoulders weren’t better: they were sticking out like elements of a 1980-styled disco outfit, except for the fact that here they were the anatomic part, not decoration. The pale pink skin and clothing of the person were covered in bluish spots, and his eyes… well, they were a caleidoscopic mess from a psychedelic cartoon. Or maybe they could belong to a hypnotized cartoon character.  
“Ha! Ha! Haaa!” the Technicolor creature cackled, waving the hand clutching a pink revolver (which was emitting pink bubbles without stopping). “Ha! Ha! Haaa!”  
“We’re leaving, you psychopathic bubblegum,” the four-eyed man snapped, not allowing his prisoner escape.  
“Ha! Ha! Haaa! Aww, come on, I was just beginning to have fun.” The psychedelic one made up what he thought to be a charming smile (not very convincing with his triangular sharp teeth – worse than Anti’s). Now Felix could see his gem located on his belly: it was hexagonal and its sides were of different colors – pink in the middle and bluish and purple shades on the surrounding sides.  
“This ‘ha-ha-haaas’ of yours are killing me.” The four-eyed man did the most elaborate bow, managing to hold the pink menace in the air at the same time. “My apologies. No more of this will ever happen.”  
The tense silence that lasted for about five seconds (although it seemed much longer) was broken in the most unexpected way: with the song intro played on real instruments, not the recorded one. It appeared that Marvin, Anti and Jackie managed to escape during the four-eyed man’s actions, and the stage was now occupied with three men and a girl – or was it a girl? The singer was dressed in Japanese schoolgirl-styled outfit in red and white shades (completely with a sailor collar, chest bow, high black stocking-like boots and black sleeves separated from the shirt), but their face was quite androgynous.  
“I had to know it. So that’s why Jack of Diamonds was so worried.” Chase hid under the counter (for no one was looking at it).  
“Who are they?” Felix whispered.  
“The pink trickster was the one who trapped you in bubbles in the morning.”  
“I’ve understood,” Felix nodded.  
“That’s Black Diamond’s first creation, Morganite, but he calls himself Wilford Warfstache. It appeared to be corrupted… well… it’s like when human children are born with defects. Black Diamond didn’t dare shatter him.”  
“And who was that four-eyed man? I thought you Gems look like us… in general.”  
“We do, but…”  
The explanation was broken by the singing voice, which again could not be certainly called male or female: as soon as you began thinking it definitely was male, the female tones reminded about themselves.  
“The balance’s thing that’s rarely seen,  
I’ve always kept it in between,  
Emotions sealed, expression stale,  
The mood is moving in straight rail,  
But then it was as it had never been…”  
“Neptunite, aka Dark, is a fusion,” Chase went on. “Have you seen he’s got two gems, not one? I only know that the gems than Black Diamond first created depended on each other so much that they fused and created a new person. The fusions almost always have extra body parts.”  
“Yo, that’s sick, dude,” Felix wrinkled.  
“I’m chip and you’re a magnet,  
A reason to wake up for me,  
But will you see me out there?  
I beg for it, just let it be.”  
Strangely, but the crowd tension seemed to have gradually fallen: now almost everyone behaved as if nothing had happened.  
“Yan,” Chase hummed and immediately got the next order for a frappe.  
“Yan?” Felix parroted.  
“Almandine, aka Yan,” Chase nodded at the singer. “See?”  
Felix quickly spotted the red heart-shaped gem replacing the singer’s belly-button. Something odd indeed was going on: it was glowing.  
“Yan is able to make people forget about anything stressful, especially in case if the memories are fresh, by singing. So much for the compensation… Yan still can’t decide about his gender. I mean, actually he was created as a male, but it was a work-in-progress, and Black Diamond was anxious that there had been no males among the Gems before, so the result is just like that.”  
Now when Chase made clear that the singer was (formally) male, Felix was certain about it. Too wide shoulders spoke for themselves. The band members were gems as well, that’s for sure: the guitarist in huge round orange-shaded glasses had a five-sided gem on his chest (disguised with a chain hanging on his neck in order to pretend that it was just a necklace), the drummer (wearing a lop-sided crown) had his gem disguised as a belt buckle, and the bass guitar player (somehow similar to S34N) had his in the middle of his torso.  
“I wonder if Black Diamond is around here,” Chase murmured.  
“Listen, Chase, I wanted to tell you something from the very beginning… I mean, before that Technicolor psychopath made a way in,” Felix blabbed out. “I-I’ve seen it.”  
“You’ve seen what?”  
“You. You had a relationship with a human woman who kicked you off after realizing who you are, but…”  
“You were spying after me?”  
“Yes! I mean no! I mean… I invited Sammy and Grayson here. Guys?..” Felix peeked from behind the counter and whistled “We don’t need no education” line tune.  
“Sammy and Grayson?” Chase repeated in a too plain and too quiet voice. Felix guessed that saying something now equaled being ‘shattered in a thousand pieces’, so he did the first thing he thought of. As soon as two children – a girl and a boy with identical birthmarks on the backs of their left palms – approached to the bar, Felix ran, never turning back.


	5. Con-Fusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one is kind of an interlude: the kids make themselves more familiar with new gems.

“Can someone please remind me why on Earth does it have to go wrong?” Signe asked, having flopped onto the hotel steps, for no one could see her here: it was evening, and everyone significant was at the hotel territory, enchanted by the genderless singer’s performance. She couldn’t even realize who sat down next to her and gave her a small one-armed side embrace until she saw the holographic letters, this time tiny.  
[AT LEAST OUR EFFORTS WEREN’T FOR NOTHING.]  
Of course, it was Jameson, still in his mime outfit.  
“Yeah, I know that you cannot plan absolutely everything, but I feel like it defeats the purpose,” Signe replied.  
[YOU KNOW NOTHING, SIGNE… AH, ALMOST FORGOT.] Jameson produced Shawn’s gem from his pocket, and right on time, for it released its host in a couple of seconds.  
“I guess that pink psycho was the one who locked us up in bubbles in the morning, eh?”  
[TOTALLY.]  
After regaining his full form, Shawn shook the remains of ink off his hands and checked if his gem was solid, then turned to his friend:  
“Thanks, Jameson. I can always rely on ya… Hey, what was goin’ on while I was out?”  
This time Jameson used pictures instead of words, having shown all the events and figures who had taken part in them in chronological order: from the four-eyed man to the genderless singer. Shawn didn’t comment it aloud, but his fingers that became almost black by the end of the ‘presentation’ showed his mood clearly enough.  
“Gah. Only da Black Diamond’s gang is able ta spoil an event, den attract all attention to itself and call it ‘savin’ the day’,” he stated, having released a small ink bubble from his hand, and let it float over his palm. “Nah, I’m not blamin’ Black Diamond, but sometimes it seems dat his gang is like… whatchamacallit? If he created it out of himself, dey all got his character, but warped. Dere’s a disorder of havin’ many personalities in one head, like a bad fusion, among you humans, but here dey all have separate bodies…”  
“Got it, Shawn,” Signe replied. “But would you explain what fusion is?”  
[BASICALLY LIKE DARK. THE FOUR-EYED MAN. ACTUALLY, I BELIEVE EVERYONE’S GATHERING IN THE HOTEL HALL,] Jameson stated. [LET’S GO, I HATE MAKING OTHERS WAIT.]

Mark couldn’t even tell which gang was freakier – that of Jack of Diamonds or that of Black Diamond. First off, the four-eyed and four-handed man was the part of the latter’s team, as well as the pink psycho and all the members of the band which had distracted the hotel guests. Besides, there was a gem wearing a doctor’s uniform (who now was having a quiet, but concentrated conversation with Schneep), an eyeless one (or at least it seemed so, because he was wearing a bandage over them; besides, his gem was located in the middle of his forehead, making him look eerie) and a gem who most of all resembled an official or a talk show host, for he was dressed in a strict suit, and a polite, but sly grin never left his face.  
“You should thank us for stopping the disaster,” the gem in the lop-sided crown stated. “If it weren’t for us and Yan, there would’ve been chaos.”  
“Yeah? And who almost caused that chaos, Kingie?” Jackie parried. The pink menace happily bounced and let out two or three ‘ha-ha-haaas’ upon this statement.  
“Stop being so damn selfish,” the four-eyed man intruded, having whacked the pink one on the head with his cane. “Everybody knows that chaos can break out any moment, and no one will be able to stop it… except for me, maybe.”  
“Ha! Just because you’re a fusion doesn’t mean that you’re the big cheese!” Jackie snapped. “Help me here, Marv! Come on, let’s…”  
“No, Jackie,” Marvin coldly replied. “This is called with a word I can’t say, because it’s banned. Do you remember that fusion is to take place in serious situations, not just for showing off?”  
“But I love being times as powerful as I am!” Jackie whined.  
“Turn your reasonable part on, Spessortine,” Marvin sealed. They must’ve used their actual gem names when making the most serious statements, because Jackie only nodded and walked away from his pal after having heard the last word.  
The next moment two Diamonds in their human versions walked into the hall. Human ‘shell’ of Black Diamond was a bit taller than that of Jack of Diamonds and more muscular, and his appearance was that of a half-blood, for the presence of Asian features in his face was more than obvious (the most prominent feature was his almond-shaped eyes).  
“Black Jack, Black Jack!” Warfstache happily sung and received another whack from the four-eyed one. The ‘genderless’ one – Yan – gave the latter a sly smile:  
“Hey Dark, I remember that you can do the rotating trick not only with your top half. I mean…” he rotated his arm in the air several times. “You’ve got a double portion, and…”  
“Stop beating around the bush, Yan, this is Google’s job,” the black-and-white one interfered, having caused the one in a blue tee and cyan visor glare at him.  
“One-nil, Bim! So, I meant… you could hit Warfstache until he poofs like this,” Yan finished.  
“I’m going to hit someone else,” the four-eyed man – Dark – snapped, all of his eyes fixed on (human) Chase and two children entering the place. “Chrysoberyl and human. What a nice mixture. A new kind of fusion, if you ask me.”  
Chase gave both his children a reassuring shoulder squeeze:  
“Sammy, Grayson, it’s okay. There are gem people here, but it’s all fine. They’re not bad.”  
“I wonder if you’re bad,” Dark snapped and hit Chase with the tip of his cane. The human outer shell immediately vanished, revealing the yellowish green person underneath. But Sammy and Grayson did not run or yell – they just marveled at the sight. Dark hummed. “I thought they would be more of scaredy cats. Maybe there’s still a chance.”  
“Stop revealing everyone’s true selves, Dark,” Black Diamond ordered.  
“And I’m interested what will happen if he hits a human,” Bim put in. “You see, Dark’s special talent is not only turning around like a living helicopter blade. He’s able to rip any disguise off a gem with his cane, like he just did to Chase. Hmm… I wonder if this can make humans tell the truth, for instance…”  
The Diamonds, not minding him, walked up to Sammy and Grayson and eyed them.  
“You can turn into cool aliens too?” the boy asked.  
“Yes, we can, but we won’t do it here,” Black Diamond pointed out. “By the way, about cool aliens. Have you ever noticed anything strange about yourselves?”  
The siblings exchanged glances, and part of the answer arrived immediately: Sammy blushed, and her freckles glowed – for two or three seconds, but they did.  
“We’re not geeks,” Grayson stated.  
“Nobody’s calling you geeks. Having blue eyes or freckles doesn’t make anybody geeks, does it? So, glowing freckles or eyes changing color are okay too,” Black Diamond stated. “You know what, kids? Your Daddy really missed you.”  
Dark walked up to them, twirling his cane:  
“Do I look like a geek? Yet I can do lots of awesome things. And it’s time to check if I’m right once again.”  
He circled the room, three hands on his hips and the fourth still twirling his cane, then stopped in front of one of the armchairs, rapidly dove under it and pulled a dust-covered squirming short person out, who reacted with yelps mixed with sneezes.  
“Well, well, well. I capture you once again tonight, Felix Kjellberg,” Dark evenly stated. “You still smell like Wilford’s chewing gum substitute.”  
Warfstache did a small victory dance upon this statement.  
“Really? Is this the only reason?” Felix snapped.  
“I’m sure not,” Dark replied and whacked him on the back with his cane. Felix froze, having even stopped blinking. “Now tell me the reason for causing Chase to expose himself as a gem.”  
“Thought it was unfair that their mother separated them,” Felix replied in an indifferent voice.  
“Yes? Didn’t you think it could potentially cause a disaster? Hunting Chrysoberyl down like an exotic animal? You’re lucky that it didn’t happen.”  
“This is why I was named like that. I am lucky,” Felix smirked. Dark rolled all four his eyes:  
“Classic human.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See the Iplier gems here: http://fav.me/ddca80i


	6. Genie in a Gem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gem boys get into a new trouble, but get a new ally as well.

It was almost hopeless. Mark’s brain was squeezed like a sponge, unable to produce any useful ideas. Really, how would mathematical formulas help you in the outside world? Who could use them?.. Distracted, Mark began drawing rocket ships at the notebook margins.  
“And the square root of this pain in the rear equals me being hopeless,” he muttered almost aloud, having made his classmate Ethan turn his head at him. “Maybe staying at school wouldn’t be like this if there were no summer holidays… at all.”  
Ethan expressed his consent with humming a quiet ‘aha’ and went on solving his task. And Mark was more than glad when the recess bell rang at last, even though he hardly managed to solve less than half of tasks given ‘in order to check if you remember anything after the summer break’.  
“Seven-and-a-half out of twenty. At most,” Ethan commented.  
“You telling it to me? Huh! The best out of the worst,” Mark parried, and both boys laughed. However, a moment later Mark’s laughter changed to concentration, for he spotted something off about his friend, or, more exactly, about his clothing. “Ethan, where did you get this?” He pointed at the brooch holding Ethan’s short cape (what to say, Ethan loved showing off, especially at the beginning of the school year) under his neck.  
“Saw it at the ArtShop fair,” Ethan replied. “Bought for my pocket money. Wanted to annoy Ms. Martenson. She can’t do anything to me, ha ha.”  
“May I have a glance?”  
Ethan shrugged, but detached the brooch from his clothing and gave it to Mark. The doubts flew out of the window when he saw the thin prominent brownish line circling the round orange gem with target-like pattern and without a single crack (thank goodness). And how on Earth was the fastener holding on it? With some sort of glue?  
The gem pulsed a little when Mark curled his hand around it. Perhaps its inhabitant was attempting to get out of it, but something was preventing him from this.  
“After school. At the end of the school yard,” he ordered.  
“Mark, what’s got into you?”  
“Ethan, that’s much more serious than unsolved Math tasks!”  
School lessons were almost infinite by themselves, and in addition anxiousness didn’t leave Mark until the final bell of the day rang – he practically ran out of the classroom, hoping that Ethan had taken him seriously. Thank goodness his pal was waiting for him at the set place.  
“If I didn’t know you, Mark, I would’ve thought you’ve gone nuts,” Ethan confessed.  
“Going nuts is Felix’s job,” Mark replied. “That brooch of yours… It’s not a brooch.”  
“So what is it?”  
“You’ll see… Give it here. It’s important. I mean it.”  
As if approving Mark’s statement, the orange gem’s sides glowed one by one. This was enough to make Ethan’s eyes pop:  
“What the?..”  
“Ethan!” Mark roared. “I MEAN IT!”  
Ethan, hands shaking, unattached the brooch and gave it to Mark. The gem reacted with its sides glowing at the same time.  
“Jackie? Can you hear me? Glow twice for yes,” Mark asked.  
The gem hesitated, but reacted with the requested motion, having made Ethan’s jaw drop in addition. Mark would’ve cracked up at his expression if the situation wasn’t that serious.  
“Why are you a brooch now? You can’t get out? Oh… Sorry, I’ve forgotten that you can’t speak. Were you poofed?“  
Two glows.  
“Only you?”  
Three glows.  
“That means no?”  
Two glows.  
“Okay, two glows mean yes, three glows mean no. Got it. Can you get out now?”  
Three glows. Mark recalled that gems needed staying ‘in their shell’ until they fully recover and went on asking:  
“You’re not feeling fine?”  
Three glows.  
“Ah, you’re okay? So… Perhaps this fastener is not giving you a chance to get out. Sorry Ethan!”  
Mark ripped the fastener off (he could’ve sworn that the gem gave an additional push to get rid of it), and the gem reacted in mere seconds, letting its owner out, again to Ethan’s astonishment.  
“Whew! I was so tired of sitting in that itty bitty living space!” Jackie breathed out, stretching to prove his statement.  
“Wait, you fit in there? Are you a genie?” Ethan babbled, unable to close his mouth (Mark again felt an urge to burst into laughter at his goldfish-like expression).  
“No, I’m not. I can’t make wishes come true in traditional sense. Although you’re right in some way. Cosmic power…” Jackie materialized his weapon (knuckles), did some battle motions and made it vanish, “…and itty bitty living space. But now no fear, Jackieboy Man’s here!”  
Mark took several deep breaths to calm down and then went on asking:  
“It’s great that you’re here, Jackie, but where’s everyone else? And how did you end up being a brooch?”  
“My brooch,” Ethan interfered.  
“Sorry kid. I’ll ask Jack of Diamonds to make you a new one without a creature inside… That was something, I should say. We were at home, not bothering anyone, and then the door slammed open, and we were poofed one by one! They couldn’t get me for long, so I saw that the Diamonds got poofed as well, and the attackers used a special kind of weapon. Gem-made weapon.”  
The following was spoken at the same time.  
“There are more?” Ethan asked.  
“Diamonds?” Mark wondered. “So that means the Black Diamond’s gang was with you?”  
“Yep. Was training with Yan. He’s awesome when it comes to cold-arms.” Jackie took the fastener from Mark and bit on it. “Yes. This is gem-made as well. This metal is able to prevent the gem from coming out of their shell, otherwise I could’ve torn it away in process… Right. task is clear now. Finding the rest of the gems, returning them to normal and being free by lunch. Ha!” Upon the last word he transformed into his human version.  
“Wait a second, Jackie, I’m not going to stay behind,” Mark stated. “Ethan?”  
“W-well… who stays behind when there are genies from gems?” Ethan meekly replied.  
“Great! So here’s the plan. Mark, do you remember all the shapes of our gems?”  
“Almost.”  
“So this will be the first sign, unless someone was shattered… Ugh, don’t even want to think about it. And you Ethan, you’ll use this fastener. See? This metal has a unique shade, so you won’t mistake it with anything else.”  
“Wait, we’re not going to steal anything!” Ethan exclaimed. Jackie grinned and tossed them a handful of earpieces – the same earpieces that they had used during the party preparations.  
“Three taps, and the rest is on me. No thefts involved, kiddos.”

“And how many of them are there?”  
“Jack of Diamonds… ten together with him and… Black Diamond… ten as well… wait, one of them has two gems, so this means twenty-one. Well, twenty now that Jackie’s free.”  
“TWENTY?! We won’t ever find them!”  
“Each new found one gives a new chance,” Mark mused. He was almost sure that his parents wouldn’t mind him coming from school a bit late, so he decided to have a look at the items at the jewelry shops. And the very first one made him suspicious, for the perfectly round purple gem with a dark violet ring circling it was more than familiar. “Here. Bet that’s Robbie. Jackie?”  
He tapped on the earpiece three times, as instructed, and the gem reacted with faint, but present glow.  
“Duly noted,” Jackie’s voice replied in the earpiece.  
Practically every single jewelry shop in the neighborhood appeared to contain at least one poofed gem. And almost all of them glowed as a response to tapping on the earpiece. Mark almost lost count of them by the moment he and Ethan met at the suburbs.  
“Nine,” Ethan reported.  
“Nine as well,” Mark replied and tapped on the microphone. “Jackie? Are you there?”  
Jackie, as it came out, was sitting on the fire ladder over them and dangling his legs.  
“Tricky hands and no tomfoolery,” he stated and landed in front of the boys. After making sure that no one was watching, he pulled a plastic bag full of gems out of the pocket on his belt. “Almost all of them. No wonder that Diamonds weren’t found, they’re much more precious than those like us. Next step: bringing them back to life, and as about the Diamonds… let’s put it this way: S34N or Google know much more about it than me.”  
“But I wanna know about it too,” Mark put in. “I can’t just stay behind! And everyone who knows has been anxious about you too! Signe… Felix… Grayson… Sammy…”  
“No worries, Mark. Just leave the earpiece on, right?”

Beep. Beep. Beep.  
“Mmf…” Mark groaned, opening one eye (the other’s lids didn’t wish to open). “What the… Jackie-and-Diamonds-and-everyone-and-poofed!” he blabbed out, his brain and body not managing to catch up with each other. The balance (or half of it) was regained when Mark opened the window and was greeted with the sight of Jameson’s face upside down.  
“Excellent. You could’ve made him yell and wake everyone up, JJ,” Jackie commented from below.  
[BUT I DID NOT,] Jameson replied, prudently keeping his holograms dim. [COME ON, MARK. ONLY YOU’RE MISSING. BUT IF YOU DON’T WANT TO, YOU MAY STAY.]  
“I’m not going to stay behind! World’s quietest rescue!” Mark shot out in a hushed voice. But then the feeling of reality returned to him. “Guys… I can’t come out of the front door without being spotted.”  
Jameson beamed, and a second later Marvin entered the sight, moving in such a way that his fiery wings couldn’t be seen from the windows. First he helped the mute gem return to the ground and only then carefully held Mark by his middle and carried him out of the room.  
“For some reason Jameson loves being upside down,” Marvin informed. “Back to business now. We’ll be in our place in no time. Jameson and Jackie will run, they don’t like flying, though I could’ve given them this power for a while.”  
“Why can’t you give it to me?”  
“Because I haven’t studied its effects on humans yet,” Marvin seriously replied and crouched. “Get onto my back. Don’t press onto the wings, they’re sensitive despite being made of soft flames.”  
The idea that Jackie and Jameson would be the last to get to the ‘place’ was almost wrong: either Marvin was flying slowly (perhaps for his passenger not to fall off in the process, because nobody had thought of safety belts) or Jackie and Jameson were marathon champions, but the ‘sky’ pair and the ‘earth’ pair were keeping up with each other almost without taking over. At first Mark even got interested who would be the first to come, but then the unspeakable sensations took all his attention: cold on top and warmth below accompanied with constantly moving ‘soft flames’ underneath. In addition his arms and legs got completely stiff by the moment of landing.  
“You sure it’ll be safe here? I mean, Jackie said that you were attacked in your house,” Mark reminded, having almost fallen off Marvin’s back, and flexed his limbs to warm them up. Jackie pointed at the thin greenish line on the edges of the door:  
“Made of those very fasteners that held us locked up. Silver lining of the clouds, so to say. Some people just don’t expect that somebody will be cheeky enough to trick a trickster or to steal from a thief.”  
Mark expected the house to be crowded, but the sight appeared to be opposite: the only persons present were three humans (Felix, Ethan and Signe) and two half-gems (Sammy and Grayson). Those whom he had anticipated to see were lined up on the table in the middle of the room, some still bearing the remains of glue with which the fasteners had been attached to them.  
Marvin took two very similar gems of turquoise shade and elongated shape (the only difference was the number of sides – five and six) and turned them around:  
“They look solid. Should be okay to bring them back now.”  
“Wait, Marv,” Grayson interfered. “Bring Daddy back, please.”  
[NO WORRIES,] Jameson assured. [YOUR DADDY IS HERE, AND HE WILL COME BACK AS SOON AS WE MAKE SURE HIS GEM IS SOLID. BUT FIRST OF ALL WE NEED TO BRING THE SPECIALISTS BACK.]  
Having materialized his wand, Marvin surrounded the two bluish gems with a ring of his ‘soft flames', and they reacted with glowing – first faint, then more confident, and finally let their carriers out. Their appearance was not the tidiest, for their white gowns were half-torn and their shoes had the tracks of fighting, no talking about their fringes: huge locks were practically torn out of them.  
For about fifteen seconds Schneep and his companion were staring at each other, oblivious to the children and their gem pals. Then both inhaled and closed their eyes, relieved.  
“What in ze name of Homevorld waz it?” Schneep finally asked.  
“A more important question is: are you two all right?” Marvin asked in return.  
After checking their database devices and gem condition the two approved that they were fine, just a bit shaken after the fight. It took them some more minutes to restore their original appearance, and they set off to examining the gems that hadn’t woken up yet.  
“What do you do if a gem is broken?” Sammy asked, twirling Shawn’s gem in her hands.  
“There are multiple ways to restore it. Brown and Black Diamond found ways to do in on molecular level… Oh, how impolite of me. I am Turquoise, but you may call me Edward. Edward Iplier – that’s my codename.” The named one opened his database and scrolled it down. “All right. Kyanite and Indicolite seem to be in normal state. Spinel?”  
“How many times have I asked you not to use our gem names?” Marvin sighed, but still performed the same procedure to the mentioned ones, having released S34N and the member of the band which had distracted the attention during the infamous performance (Mark recalled that his codename was Google). They appeared to have suffered even worse than the medical gems, for their visors were shattered and limbs were covered in bruises.  
[THE INFORMATION QUARTET IS HERE, THANK HEAVENS,] Jameson commented. [I REMEMBER THAT ONE OF BLACK DIAMOND’S CHARGES IS PSYCHIC. IS THAT TRUE?]  
“Psychic?” Ethan senselessly parroted.  
“He’s blind, but is able to see things in a way science can’t explain,” Edward pointed out, showing the eye-shaped gem of ochre shade. “Topazolite, aka The Host.”  
The process of revival went on quite smoothly: Marvin resumed waking gems up two by two. Sammy and Grayson were on cloud nine when it came to Chase (although, like most revived gems, he appeared to be quite shaken at the beginning), but then it came to doubting when Marvin got to the pair of gems of similar shape but differing in color: red and blue.  
“Maybe we should not wake him up at all,” Shawn suggested. “He won’ be happy.”  
“And I think we shouldn’t wake Warfstache up,” Felix confessed. “It’ll be a mess.”  
“What about Kingie and Yan? They’re messy as well,” the one in orange glasses, Bing, asked.  
“Robbie is clumsy, he’ll be an obstacle,” Bim mentioned.  
To everyone’s surprise, it was Anti who opposed all those statements:  
“And I believe everyone is to wake up. As about Warfstache, Kingie and Robbie – well, chaos may prove to be a very good ally. We’ve seen what Yan is able to do, and no comments about Dark!”  
“Looks like you have a plan,” Signe supposed. Anti sneered:  
“I most definitely do, but only if you all are ready to work in extreme conditions.”  
“Listen, Anti! We have been locked up in our own gems, some fanatics are searching for us and the only human allies we have are children!” Chase shot out and materialized his gun. “No, I’m not going to miss this trickshot for life!”


	7. A Kind of Magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Host figures out something very important, Felix willingly acts as a guinea pig and Marvin realizes that the situation may be much more complicated than he thought.

Now this was more than strange. Felix knew it well that the first days or even weeks of studying were hard and everyone’s mood was not the best, but this was too much: not a single day passed without arguments or even fights. Something weird was going on. Even at home the state of events was not the best: Felix’s parents either kept eerily silent or took their frustration out on him. And it wasn’t about his bad marks or else, literally anything could become the reason for it: from burnt toast to accidentally tripping over something. But there was a positive moment too: they hardly paid attention to him now when not yelling at him, so after returning home Felix hastily did his homework and hurried to the gems’ house, where the Black Diamond’s gang stayed now as well, for their hideout had become unsafe.  
This evening almost nobody was home, and the human and half-gem allies had not arrived yet. Only the Host was sitting at the table, fingers laced, and brooding over something. Felix crept past him hoping he would go unnoticed, but then the gem spoke:  
“The Host saw you coming, Felix. Stop fidgeting.”  
“I’m not fidgeting,” Felix replied, his throat tightening: he had never spoken to this ‘three-eyed’ gem before (it wasn’t enough that his gem was located on his forehead: it was eye-shaped in addition and put vertically).  
“You’re worried. The public mood is tense, and you are feeling it, but you have no idea what to do.”  
“Do you?”  
“There’s something very wrong with the air. As if something – or somebody – invaded it.”  
“You mean… something toxic? Like toxic gas or – or remains of explosion?”  
“Toxic,” the Host mused. “Toxic. That’s the right word for it. But it’s not a gas. It’s poison of a different kind, but the Host cannot find its source. It is impossible to smell it or to taste it.”  
“Sorry, just a moment.” Felix felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and relaxed, having seen that it was Signe calling. “Hello? I’m right…”  
The Host turned his head to him, and Felix forced himself not to turn away (even though the eyes were missing, the impression was as if the gem was drilling the kid with his look).  
“…there,” he finished. “What? Ah, no, it wasn’t anything special… Come…”  
“Signe,” the Host mused. “The benign child, Signe… When she called you, the concentration of poison increased. Your phone is a source of it… It is in the air. Everyone hears it. Everyone senses it. And everyone quarrels. This is it.”  
“B-but why wasn’t I infected? Or Signe, or Mark?” Felix murmured.  
“Perhaps it does not influence those who know,” the Host replied. “If you know the truth, lies will not trick you… Is there a radio in your phone?”  
“Yes.”  
“Turn it on, the Host wants to check.”  
Felix obediently turned the radio on, and the Host concentrated (although there was nothing to concentrate on – such hullabaloo sounded from it).  
“Double intensity. So it means that the source is in sounds and the waves. The Internet, as you call it.”  
“Is it possible to track it?”  
“The Host cannot track it, but there may be a way. Yan also has powers connected to voice using.”  
“Was privileged to make sure of it,” Felix confessed. “And what about the Diamonds?”  
“Anti and Chase said that they have a plan. The Host will leave it to the sighted ones.”  
The sighted ones returned in no time. To Felix’s sheer surprise, none of them – even those who were made for it – was wreaking havoc or fooling around. Even the pink psycho Warfstache behaved almost perfectly (probably because of constantly being under the four watchful eyes of Dark), but the initiative was taken over by Anti and Marvin.  
“I believe we have found our Diamonds,” Dark proclaimed. “They are in the oldest building of the town. Google?”  
The named one opened a holographic database screen and commented:  
“The local church is around two hundred years old. I believe that our Diamonds are there.”  
“Why do you always allow Google to search for info? I can do that too,” Bing interfered. “Besides, what made you think that our Diamonds are there?”  
“I’ve been learning the new kind of magic – the searching kind,” Marvin explained, materialized his wand, placed it on his palm and commanded: “Lead me to the blind man!”  
The wand moved like a clock’s hand and pointed at the Host.  
“That’s notable, but how do we know it’s not another cheap trick?” Bing resumed.  
“Trust me, I’ve seen it!” Anti boomed, materializing his knife. “Or do you want me to prove it? I’ll be glad to make you another blind man!”  
Bing blew raspberries at him, but said nothing.  
“At first it went on just fine, but then my wand went stark raving mad. I’ve heard that the older a building is, the better it reflects magic and gem effects,” Marvin went on. “This is why churches and temples have been considered to be the safest places for centuries.”  
“We’ve performed an experiment,” Anti caught up. “We poofed Warfstache, I hid him and then Marv found him at the first try. It works. No worries, he didn’t mind being poofed. I doubt that he even realized it.”  
“We’ve checked all the directions,” Bing caught up, having forgotten about their bickering. “They all point at the church. Our Diamonds should be there, and we’d better set off right now. Who knows how much time we have before the aggressors find out that we’ve been released.”  
“For now it seems calm,” the Host put in. “But the Host understands your idea and supports it.”  
“And another thing.” Bim began walking from side to side, tapping on his temples. “We’ll need a human. Do the math: churches are believed to be sacred, and if we make a mess there it’s almost certain that we’ll be caught. And humans know what should be touched and what should be not much better.”  
“Right,” Felix reacted. “Then I am coming with you. Before you ask, I really don’t care about school. Saving two living gems is much more important that solving idiotic problems that would come in handy if I wanted to become an engineer or technician. And that will NEVER happen!”

“Dammit, you’re a daredevil,” Anti whispered. “Any other kids would’ve freaked out by now.”  
“I just don’t understand why there are so many bans,” Felix confessed after entering the church building. He would never confess that he had chills along his spine. Hello darkness, my old friend… or what do they say there? No. Silence was worse than darkness, making even Felix’s heartbeat (thumping worse than a bell) seem too loud.  
Marvin showed his wand (the flame on the tip of which has almost gone out) to prove that his search magic wasn’t working. Felix nodded and concentrated. Hiding two HUGE gems. Hiding two DIAMONDS. What was the best way of hiding something? Placing it in plain sight. Or maybe… Felix looked under each and every bench present, but didn’t find anything suspicious except for a couple of chewing gums (disgusting). But Anti appeared to be quicker than anyone present.  
“I think I know where they are.” He pointed at the enormous stained-glass window and, losing no time, jumped on it and climbed up. Did he have stickers on his hands and knees?.. But before Anti could’ve made another comment, he disappeared. Just disappeared, as if decided to teleport from here! Judging by the tingling sound that followed, he was poofed for some unknown reason.  
Bim picked the gem up and moved his finger along its edge:  
“Solid. But the protection is reliable… It means that first off, they are indeed in the window, and secondly, we won’t be able to get them out without poofing.”  
“Well, what about your… fusion thingy?” Felix recalled. Bim shrugged:  
“It’ll be useless. The destabilizing technology influences the physical body of gems no matter how many there are.”  
“Does this destabilizer hurt humans?”  
“Most probably, no, because you’re made… mostly of water, if so.”  
“Okay.” Felix cracked his knuckles. “Marvin, can you raise me there? Remember, like you did when we watched Jameson’s show?”  
Indeed, at first the magical ‘elevator’ worked just fine. Felix was almost certain that he saw where exactly the Diamonds were, but before he could’ve reached out to them the platform vanished from under his feet, and he would’ve turned into a human pancake if Marvin didn’t catch him in midflight at the distance just enough not to be poofed himself.  
“Reliable,” Bim repeated. “Even the gem magic doesn’t work here… Marvin?”  
Marvin nodded, although it was obvious that he was nervous. Felix rolled his eyes:  
“Oh guys, can’t you put it clear? Isn’t there a… no, there are no such high ladders, we need a crane…”  
“We need your consent,” Marvin interfered. “I’ve already told your friend Mark that it’s theoretically possible to give the gift for flying to a human. But I haven’t studied the side-effects yet. I only know that gem flying powers depend on natural elements. For instance, most flying gems have water wings, while I have fiery ones… Should work with humans too.”  
“Putting it easy, you need a guinea pig… Okay. Make me the first flying human.” Felix did his best to sound careless, but it still went out cocky. “Wait, won’t it influence me? I mean, it’s still gem magic!”  
“From the moment I give it to you it’ll be completely yours, because you’re not a gem,” Marvin explained. “Deal?”  
“Deal. And if you break me down, it’ll be even better. I’d rather skip school for a good reason.”  
Not hesitating, Marvin pointed his wand at Felix, and the world was gone. At least for the kid, because all he could see now was nothing. It wasn’t even black, just nothing, and the only sound that remained was the whistle of wind (it seemed that it came into his right ear and went out of his left one). But it wasn’t painful, to his surprise. How long did it last? He couldn’t tell. It seemed to him that for some minutes, but when his feet hit the floor (wait, when was he raised in the air?), it occurred to him that it could’ve been mere seconds. Or no, because three gems – Bim, Marvin and revived Anti – were staring at him.  
“What?” Felix curled his hands up, checking if they remained at their proper place. Marvin was the first to beam like a mad scientist:  
“Looks like it worked!”  
Felix twirled around to see if he had grown a new pair of limbs, but didn’t see anything.  
“Air!” Marvin clapped his hands in delight. “Air! Air wings! I didn’t even know it was possible!”  
“So they’re… invisible?” Felix asked, a bit disappointed. “That’s boring.”  
Marvin drew a small loop in the air with his wand, and the mentioned limbs finally became visible – or at least half-visible, for their outline was now shaded with cyan color. Their size was proportional to Felix’s skinny figure, and their shape was classic, except for elaborate curls on their tips. But the most remarkable thing about them was that they never stayed still: the impression was as if they were made of slowly, but constantly moving mist.  
“Impressive,” Bim finally stated. “Very impressive! But why air?”  
“Maybe that’s because of my light personality! I’m gonna test them!” Felix began pouncing, attempting to get himself off the ground  
“Or having air for brains, but this can be debated later,” Anti murmured. “Is that for long?”  
“Not too much. For an hour at most,” Marvin replied. “Maybe they can be called for later… No, it’s not done that way. Freeze!”  
Felix knew this game very well and obeyed, having stopped with one leg in the air.  
“Relax, we’re not playing statues! Have you ever tried moving your ears?”  
The kid shrugged:  
“Never.”  
“Usually people move their forehead skin or eyebrows, but not ears. The same here. You’re moving your back muscles and everything else, but not the wings. Stop being so tense, or you won’t even tear off the ground.”  
After a minute or two Felix managed to relax and finally bring his new limbs to motion, but that was when the chaos began: having made two or three crooked somersaults, he dropped down and crashed right onto Bim. Without even apologizing Felix darted up again, turned upside down and performed handsprings in the air.  
Anti facepalmed:  
“I knew that instantly learning to fly was possible only in videogames, but that’s too much.”  
“OH COME OOOOON!!!” Felix groaned, having taken the normal position at last. “It’s the first for humans!.. Okay, seems like I’ve found the balance…”  
“I really hope it’s so,” Bim grumbled.  
Flopping his wings like a slowed-down hummingbird, Felix reached the stained-glass window and began studying it. Diamonds should differ from glass pieces, shouldn’t they? Besides, if they were left just so, they would’ve broken free long ago. Therefore, they should be limited. Limited by what? By that very metal that blocked the rest of the gems… That seems likely. It should not be seen against the material joining the glass pieces together… and the Diamonds are also prominent. That’s a good sign. Diamonds. Di-a-monds. They should have all characteristics of ordinary diamonds, Felix thought. Ordinary diamonds do not mist over.  
Having double-checked his suspicions, Felix made sure he was right, but this fact left him astonished: he thought there were two Diamonds, but there were three fragments meeting all the requirements – framed with greenish metal, prominent, of perfect rhombus shade and remaining dry when Felix blew at them.  
“Tell me once again: are we searching for TWO Diamonds or THREE of them? I thought that there were only Jack of Diamonds and Black Diamond,” he stated and proclaimed another thought that came to him: “And if they’re taken out, there will be holes. And holes will be seen.”  
Marvin, Anti and Bim exchanged glances, and the first one spoke for them all:  
“Don’t worry about the holes. I’ll take care of them. And as about the third… what color is it?”  
“Golden brown.”  
“Gah, this means they did run the combined experiment… Anyway, get them all out. The rest is my care.”  
The material holding the glass pieces together and the ‘securing’ metal framing the Diamonds appeared to be hardly compatible, for they were not attached to each other very well. Either that or the Diamonds were resisting being framed – literally. In any case pretty soon Felix landed on the church floor, hugging all three of them to his chest.  
“Great! Now give them here and… Felix? What’s up, kid?”  
Felix pressed out a smile, pretending that his knees weren’t shaking: only now the realization of the situation struck him.  
“I was flying… I was flying! I mean it!” he wheezed. “I-I-I am the first freaking angel of this world!”  
“Freaking is the right word,” Anti sneered. “Now stop being a slowpoke and let’s finish this already twisted operation.”  
Marvin checked if his wand was working properly, pointed it at the Diamonds:  
“Geminio! Right, this is gonna fool them if everything goes smoothly. Set them into the holes, and we’re outta here!”


	8. Unbalanced

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The interlude - or the calm before the storm.

S34N clicked his tongue and examined the three Diamonds one more time, ignoring the children crowded around the table in the middle of which they lay.  
“The third Diamond for sure was created not by the supreme Diamonds. Most probably, it was the combined experiment of Brown and Black Diamonds, who united their molecular extraction abilities and created the Cognac Diamond.”  
“Cognac Diamond? You mean, like a drink?” Ethan asked.  
“Affirmative, like a drink. But that does not mean that the third Diamond is as sly as this drink. On the contrary, he’s a caring soul.”  
“And how did he end up like this? Any ideas?” Mark wondered.  
“He isn’t sly, but a Diamond needs charges, and we already depend on our creators and cannot leave them.” Kingie decided to enter the talk. “All alone he wouldn’t have survived despite being a Diamond.”  
“Logical,” S34N approved. “This means that at least two rebellious gems are operating in the neighborhood. One gem wouldn’t have coped. Judge by yourself: at first more than half of us Brown Diamond’s charges were locked up until the kids found us at the beach, and now… you see what is going on, no talking about blabbing about the hotel party to Warfstache! No insults to you, Kingie. I’m pretty sure that you were far from making a mess.”  
Kingie proudly stuck his chest out, even though his swarthy cheeks (unlike most of the gems, he had tanned skin in his natural form, which made the human transformation almost unnecessary for him) darkened – it could be identified as blushing.  
“So, who are we searching for now?” Felix put in. “Maybe one of us could borrow Dark’s cane and…”  
“And fail miserably,” Dark’s voice sounded from behind. “My cane is not a wand. Only I am capable of getting rid of others’ disguises.”  
“Just offering,” Felix shrugged.  
“Wait, ones like you are never able to hide their gems,” Signe recalled. “Like Chase. He always wears gloves or bandages when pretending to be human.”  
S34N knitted his eyebrows together in concern:  
“That might be an idea, if the location theory proves to be correct.”  
“Desperate times need desperate actions,” Dark commented.  
Not paying any attention to him, S34N opened a holographic screen and made it show a human silhouette.  
“There’s a theory that the gem’s character depends on the location of this,” he tapped on his gem. “Here are the most widespread ones. Forehead means logic and intelligence. Chest means impulsiveness, like you humans say, ‘following your heart’. Belly means care and protectiveness. Hands most often mean desire to act, but that depends if the gem is on the outside or on the inside.”  
“That seems matching,” Mark nodded. “In most cases at least. Jackie, Kingie and Yan are protective and… emmm… caring towards their subjects…”  
“In Yan’s case it’s too much,” Kingie pointed out. “He’ll kill for the one he would protect, I mean it.”  
“But it still fits,” Mark resumed. “Jameson, Chase and Shawn are more of performers than talkers… sorry Jameson, if you can hear me. Bim and the Host are clever, and besides the Host has those mental abilities. Edward, Anti, Bing, Warfstache, Jack of Diamonds and Schneep have their gems on their chests, and I think it could be connected not only with being impulsive, but with intuition too. I mean, when performing surgery you need not only steady hands, but the feeling as well.”  
“And what about the rest? I mean, Robbie, for instance?” Signe asked. “What does shoulder gem mean?”  
“No balance,” S34N replied. “My gem location is like an official badge, and therefore it’s my model of behavior.”  
“This theory is like horoscopes. Seemingly clear, but so elusive.” Dark walked up to the table, took the golden brown Diamond and squinted at it. “It’s cracked. Most probably, the one who stole them was trying to shatter them with each other. As you know, a diamond may be shattered using only another diamond.”  
“Black and Brown do not seem damaged,” Kingie objected.  
“Yes. But Black and Brown could restore this one.”  
The discussion was interrupted by the Host, who soundlessly entered the place and spoke without a single hint of emotions:  
“The Host had a vision. A messenger is incoming. Open the door.”  
“Who is that messenger?” Dark asked. “Any clear information?”  
“Three, two, one…”  
Someone banged at the door outside upon the last word. But before anyone could open it, it flew off its hinges and collapsed on the floor exactly at the place where Kingie was standing two seconds ago. The intruder, who momentarily shrunk under Dark’s frown, was obviously a gem, though unfamiliar: most of all he resembled Bim due to being tall, slim and black-and-white, but his outfit was more of informal kind and he wore huge sunglasses.  
“I’m sorry, I’ll repair it in a mo’…” the intruder babbled. Dark lifted the door as if it weighted nothing and put it onto its proper place, having fixed the hinges with his bare hands.  
“No worries. This place is proofed, unless, of course, anyone else does not blow the doors up,” Dark droned, towering over him.  
“Stop torturing him, Dark, let’s make sure who this prankster is,” Edward put in, entering the room. “Wait a second, you seem familiar. Aren’t you one of the charges of him?” he pointed at the cracked Cognac Diamond on the table.  
The stranger feverishly nodded, then briskly materialized a huge glass full of dark brown liquid and sipped from it.  
“I’m narcoleptic,” he explained. “I need recharging once in a while…”  
“Melanite,” Edward interrupted, having caught his left wrist and turned his hand over so that his gem – very large compared to others’ – located on his left palm was now visible. “This is your type, right?”  
“Yes. Name’s Remy.”  
“Remy, Remy,” the Host mused. “The Host believes that you were the last to be created by Cognac Diamond.”  
Remy nodded, having almost dropped his glass:  
“Before being cracked, if so. He shouldn’t have created Sphene and Uvarovite.”  
“Now tell us more about it,” Edward ordered. Remy nervously glanced around, having realized that while they were talking, the present ones circled him, not giving him a chance to escape (if, of course, he couldn’t fly, like Marvin). “And know this: if you’re trying to trick us, it will be felt immediately.”  
“Maybe even BEFORE you try to trick us,” the Host added.  
Remy exhaled and began:  
“My Diamond’s main ability is making abstract matters come to life. Seeing that his creators, Brown and Black Diamonds, had their teams, he decided to make up his own. He selected his own sides – Anxiety, Morality, Logic and Creativity – and materialized them as four gems which became his rightful allies. But soon their power started to fade, and my Diamond understood that it happened because there was no balance. Positive energy is to be balances with negative, so he brought Lies and Dark Creativity to life, having not paid attention that those two shared the equal amount of power with the first four. They decided that they would rather make their own decisions and… and you see.” He waved at the cracked Diamond. “He created me because I’m formally neutral. My side is Sleep, which can embody both dreams and nightmares, so the balance is kept for now.”  
“Lies,” Dark hummed, twirling his cane with all four hands. “Lies, lies, lies… So, if you’re narcoleptic and your side is Sleep, that could mean that the rest of your, so to say, brothers constantly require the results of sides they represent. Don’t they?”  
Remy casted a sidelong look at him: no wonder, Dark was almost twice taller than him and being thumped with his cane was going to leave a bump for a long time.  
“So, could this mean that opposites could weaken them?” Dark asked, now all twenty of his fingers curled around the diamond-shaped top of his cane. “Answer. I’m not the one to attack without a reason.”  
Kingie and Edward nodded, approving his latest statement.  
“See? I told the truth. Isn’t that going to weaken the Liar?”  
“Theoretically, it is, and he calls himself Deceit, not Liar,” Remy nodded. “But he has already made most of the town’s population obey him. It’s like… like an army. Besides, he and Remus are two gems in a pebble stack… sorry, you know what I mean. They are able to be unnoticeable.”  
“Remy,” Ethan suddenly spoke, “was that coffee?”  
“What?”  
“Was that coffee? You created it not to be conked out.”  
“Almost,” Remy replied. “But I don’t have any weapons. Only that.”  
“Mr. Dark,” Ethan began in a meek tone: he wasn’t used to the gems yet. Dark nodded, indicating that he was listening. “I think I have an idea. Is it possible to reverse the waking effect of that potion?” he pointed at Remy’s glass. “Or to make a sleeping potion? Remy, are you able to do so?”  
“Never tried to,” Remy confessed.  
“What are you trying to tell us, newbie?” Kingie wondered.  
“That Yan’s voice could come in handy too,” Felix added. “If he agrees, of course.”  
“All right, children. We gems are more powerful that you humans, but we’ve watched less movies,” S34N summed up. “Come on and put this jigsaw puzzle of a plan together.”


	9. Catching Snakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The jigsaw of a plan comes together - not without a few obstacles.

Late evening appeared to be even scarier than night. The gems almost finished the equipment installation at the central square of the town, and Yan was preparing for ‘ripping his throat open’, as Anti put it. All three Diamonds were absent for a reason: Black and Brown, who had woken up already, had set off to restore the Cognac Diamond in that very room with the ten-beam star on the door.  
“Right. The final spotlight is fixed,” Marvin summed up. “You sure you haven’t caught any bugs, Yan?”  
“Oh please. Bugs are Google’s business,” Yan replied. “Besides, gems don’t get colds.”  
Felix, having nothing much to do, was walking around the square. Since the moment when the jigsaw of a plan had been put together he had been feeling uneasy, as if there was a pebble in his shoe. Evening. Central square. Why wasn’t there anyone else? Perhaps Marvin knew a spell that could chase the curious eyes away. But the only magic he had been using since the beginning of the works was his usual telekinesis. Maybe it was Anti? Anti for sure knew how to shoo even the most annoying human beings away…  
Robbie ran into the square, ready to trip over his own feet, and babbled as fast as he could:  
“Listen! Cognac-Diamond-gone! I-don’t-know-who-did-it-but-close-all-the…”  
He was gone from sight before finishing his sentence, poofed by the first person to ever enter the square after the gem team. It was a man in a long grey coat with yellow edging, fedora of matching colors and a mask. But that was just the start: people followed. No, not like that: the crowd followed from all the streets beginning from the square. A human stream, that’s what it looked like most.  
His inside frozen with horror, Felix picked Robbie’s gem up and ran off to join the gem team, while the masked man slowly walked up to them. The crowd stopped before the edges of the square, obeying the unheard orders.  
“Pathetic. Just pathetic. Have you guys ever tried to catch a snake?” The man removed his mask, and Felix shook from head to toe: the left half of his face was covered in yellowish scales. Moreover, his left eye was missing, replaced with his gem of the matching shape. “You have trapped yourselves here with your concert. See?”  
The exits from the square in addition appeared to be blocked by four quirky persons, all wearing clothes of their own signature colors (purple, light blue, red and indigo) and seemingly with mirrors instead of eyes. Together they created a translucent force field consisting of four sectors of corresponding colors. But it would’ve been worse if they hadn’t done so, for it separated the square from the crowd threatening to invade the potential battlefield.  
“You can’t scare me. And you have no idea what I’m able to do with my voice,” Yan stated and stuck his tongue out, moving it snake-like. The half-faced man’s eye twitched. “What? Can’t stand the truth, Deceit? Where’s Cognac Diamond?”  
“Want your Diamond? See here!”  
Deceit was not alone: his companion, all black and neon green, fell from the sky (almost). For a moment it seemed that he had two gems, like Dark, but then it showed that his own gem was the one on his belly – huge, oval-shaped and of matching yellowish green color. The second gem – the cracked Diamond – was placed behind the ribbon across his torso.  
“He’s not yours, you are his.” Chase materialized his gun, but never got a chance to fire, for both he and his weapon were gone in a moment. Deceit smirked with the ‘normal’ half of his face (the corner of his mouth on the other half was reaching his ear – yikes):  
“Remus, you’re quite a genius. Don’t even try to get your weapons out – it triggers the poofing mechanism. Guess you weren’t clever enough to invent such perfect protection device, as well as that able to break the, so to say, barrier you put on your house.”  
“Yeah, but does it work against…” Yan’s right hand snuck behind her belt. But Felix, hardly understanding what he was doing, stopped him:  
“No, Yan! Later! Guess you scums weren’t clever enough to respect humans! You can’t poof me!”  
“And for what should I respect you?” the black-and-green gem, Remus, sneered and soared up. “You’re tiny. No weapons, no strength, no nothing.”  
“Tiny but mighty,” Felix replied, fists curling up. “Marv… could you?.. I mean it…”  
“Felix, I’m not letting you…”  
“Well, I’m not letting you be shattered!” Felix yelled. “Okay, I promise I won’t even get a scratch!”  
Marvin exhaled, closed his eyes with his free hand and let another spell out of his wand, having instantly vanished as well. The already familiar sensation – being squeezed through the endlessly narrow middle of an hourglass – returned, having been replaced with something small, but heavy falling into Felix’s hand and ground gone from under his feet.  
No one’s gonna film me, the kid smugly thought, having finally felt that the third pair of limbs returned, and put Robbie’s and Marvin’s gems into his pockets. Definitely, the flying rival could only be taken over by the player with similar abilities, and who knew if Marvin’s fiery wings would trigger the poofing mechanism!  
Remus was for sure taken back by this move, but his surprise was quickly replaced with a self-satisfied smirk, for Cognac Diamond was still in his possession.  
“Give it here, you neon stinker!” Felix yelled. “Or I’ll knock you off the sky!”  
“Really?”  
It must’ve been a pitiful sight: small human child against adult armed gem, for Remus materialized two giant spiky clubbells. Unlike the gem weapons Felix had seen before, they seemed to be made of green glass or some other see-through material, but fat not as fragile as glass, for one hit with it would’ve left the kid headless.  
“It’s not yours, it’s mine,” Remus teased, patting the cracked Diamond. “And what are you gonna do now?”  
I’m going to wait, Felix thought, for – either his sight got sharper for a brief moment or Remus got a bit closer, but he saw that the crack on the Diamond’s side was slowly but surely shortening. Soon enough the gem would be solid, so it meant Remus only had himself to blame.  
“Play Quidditch with you,” Felix smirked. “I’m right here. Catch me!”  
Remus’s clubbells whistled two inches away from Felix’s shoulder.  
“What? Still here?”  
“I am! Get me, you dead Kraken!”  
If Felix was good at something, it was teasing. No wonder, if you live in a world with so many limits! Quickly enough the result was reached: Remus got irritated. Felix soared a couple of meters up and blew raspberries at him:  
“You geeks did not even predict there could be a flying human! Yo-hoo!”  
This time two clubbells collided with a bang right above the kid’s head and returned to Remus’s hands, as if they were magnetized. But Remus didn’t move. Perhaps he was afraid to drop the Diamond (which was much closer to being solid now).  
Much better. Irritated. Right, now gotta blow up the fire. Felix didn’t even care about himself anymore, no talking about his promise to Marvin.  
“Hey! You won’t even satisfy your hunger with Felix-shaped pancake… Shame!”  
BOOM! This time the effect of the clubbells’ impact made the kid shake worse than a telephone with turned-on vibration mode. Luckily Felix came round just in time to dodge Remus’s weapon which could’ve for sure left him headless.  
The vibration attack was almost perfect. Almost – because the lower half of the golden brown gem was seen very well now. Felix collected himself once more:  
“Your friend said that catching snakes is hard as all hell. Well, what about roaches?”  
This time the clubbells behaved like clumsy Frisbees when Remus tossed them. Avoiding both of them was much harder, but Felix solved the problem by rapidly diving underneath Remus and making him catch his weapon so that he wouldn’t hit himself. That was the final blow required.  
They say that in dangerous moments time slows down. Felix didn’t know if it was true, but the moment when the Cognac Diamond – now with just one tiny crack next to its edge – slipped from under Remus’s ribbon, was not a moment but something much longer.  
For half a second both Felix and Remus stared at the gem in free fall and then bolted after it. Having not thought of anything cleverer, Felix blindly elbowed Remus (judging by the yelp, he struck the neon gem in the face) and made a grabbing motion even though he couldn’t feel his fingers anymore. He relatively came round only in midair again when he realized that he was holding the Diamond and that its sides flashed one by one. One, two, three, four, middle.  
“Gotcha,” Felix wheezed. That must’ve been a blackout, because he only remembered some grey mist whirling in front of him, and when it was gone, he found himself on a warm springy surface. And, most importantly, with hands empty and wings gone.  
“Careful, I doubt that you ever handled them.”  
“Oh please. Can’t I handle a little human?”  
“You couldn’t even handle the sinister ones… No, Yan. Not yet.”  
A pair of ochre-shaded eyes with diamond-shaped pupils stared at Felix, and the kid understood that he was lying on a palm of an enormous hand – so large that the fingers attached to it were more like tree trunks. Thank goodness they weren’t curled around him, otherwise there would’ve been another shock.  
“C-Cognac… Diamond?..” Felix mumbled.  
“That’s who I am,” the giant nodded.  
“B-b-but there are people… they will see you…”  
“Don’t worry. I’ve already broken the mirrors. My charges will take care of it.”  
“What mirrors?”  
A person equally enormous to Cognac Diamond, but strangely grey – his skin was of steel shade and his clothing and hair (long fringe hanging to the left of his face) was mostly black, and he was wearing shaded glasses as well – appeared in Felix’s sight. Now that was doubtlessly the true form of Black Diamond.  
“Mirrors set by those two.” Cognac Diamond pointed at something besides Felix. Those were two gems – one ochre-colored and eye-shaped and the other neon green and oval, both locked in some kind of bubbles. “Now they won’t come out by themselves. Have you seen the eyes of my charges? Those mirrors were to be broken. The controlling ones.”  
“You speak riddles.” Felix sat up and rubbed his head. Then he recalled something else and got Robbie’s and Marvin’s gems out. “Here they are. Do you know when they will come round?”  
“Ask Jack of Diamonds about it, not me,” Black Diamond replied. “Remy? Edward? Is it ready yet?” Then he turned back to Felix, who was blinking in confusion, and explained: “Remy, Edward and Dark worked out a potion to make everyone who saw it think that it was just a bad dream, and Yan will erase Deceit’s residual influence. It was Ethan’s idea, remember?”  
“Yeah, I do,” Felix approved.  
“One more trickshot, and the job is done. And you’d better get a nap.”  
“I’m okay, I just have my brains on fire,” Felix replied senselessly, not even giving a damn where trickshots came in. “And I’m not tired at all… and totally…” He wanted to add something haughty too, but his consciousness drifted out of his body before he could say another word.


	10. Starting Over

“This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening.” Signe finally turned the recording off, hoping to get away from it for a couple of minutes. All school was abuzz about the thirty-second video featuring two flying humans, one all black-and-green, the other smaller and much quicker. It was blurry, so the faces weren’t seen. However, it did not prevent the video from going viral.  
The next surprise took place at the beginning of the first lesson, when the school principal entered the classroom, accompanied by four boys, whose appearance reflected each other’s – what were people like them called? Quadruplets? Their facial features were identical, and they all were quite short and slim, but their outfits were all different, as well as hairstyles (one of them even had a long fringe dyed in purple color).  
“Children, I’d like you to meet our new students, the Sanders quadruplets: Roman, Patton, Virgil and Logan. I’m sure they will make a decent addition.”  
When the newbies took their places, Signe felt another twinge of anxiousness, for the shades of their clothing exactly met those of the four ‘defenders of the square’ where the viral video had been filmed. Red, light blue, purple and indigo. Just a coincidence. Just a coincidence. It’s okay…  
However, the ‘expectations versus reality’ battle began during the science class. Signe didn’t like the practical tasks much, mainly because of having to write conclusions for them (Mr. Moriarty, their science teacher, was never tired to remind them that conclusion made half of the eventual grade for the task). Today the goal was making an electric engine in accordance with the instructions, and the quads, who originally intended to team up, were split between the four groups, much to their dismay. What to say, Mr. Moriarty used every chance he could to approve his being supreme – or his pets being supreme, so Signe sneakily nicknamed him Professor Snape.  
“So, you have all instructions you need,” he finished. “Make sure that all the team mates take part in the work, right? I’ll see if anybody shies away from it…”  
“No worries, Mr. Moriarty. Neither me nor my brothers are going to.” The dark indigo quad – wasn’t his name Logan? – set his rectangular glasses. “Besides, we’ve already studied this subject, so putting it together should not be any difficult.”  
“Where have you studied it?” Mr. Moriarty wondered.  
“By ourselves,” Logan shrugged. “Isn’t it interesting to learn how things work?”  
“Perhaps the root of the main troubles of this world is that hardly anybody wants to know,” the purple quad, Virgil, added. “No offence to anybody here, but it’s a fact.”  
Maybe it was just Signe’s imagination, but Logan’s face sort of… glitched after he set his glasses. But it quickly returned to its original state, so she hummed a quick ‘it’s all in your head’ and set off to helping her team mates.  
Ignorance was never the best helper, and Signe made sure of it once again during the P.E. class. Today the kids were playing volleyball, and, of course, Derek Derekson was a captain of one of the teams. It was not about his physical abilities. The matter was that hardly anybody wanted to argue with him, even though most kids quietly despised him.  
The team selection ended up with the quads being in the same team with Signe under Mark’s leadership. If so, Mark was about the only kid daring to openly challenge Derek, and the latter never lost a chance to try and do a number on the first one.  
To everyone’s surprise, Virgil sent the ball quite decently despite looking not too sporty. But it was just the beginning. For about three minutes the ball wasn’t touching the ground and Derek’s team mates were about to get nuts when Derek finally made the hit which would’ve opened the score for his team – if it was not for Roman, who jumped so high as if he had springs on his heels and struck the ball so powerfully that it bounced off the opposite wall and ended up smashing Derek in his back and sending him to the ground.  
“What? It was just an air current,” Roman shrugged, pointing at the wide open window. “It caught me, that’s it.”  
“No way,” someone commented. “What kind of shoes are you wearing?”  
However, Roman’s shoes were just like everyone else’s. But it didn’t end the oddities for today: the climax was reached during the lunch break.  
“No one has ever laid a finger on Derek Derekson and got way with it!”  
The quads simultaneously turned their heads to Derek, who approached to their table, all of him just screaming about a deadly threat (Virgil’s mouth was still stuffed with food).  
“Calm down, Derek, Roman didn’t mean to hit you,” Patton stated. “And I don’t think it’s right to refer to yourself in the third person.”  
“Don’t care! I’ll make you pay for that!”  
“For sanity’s sake, why does everyone cheer when a jock beats up a nerd?” Logan mused. “What about the opposite situation?”  
“HA!” Derek snapped. “Even all four of you won’t stand a chance against me!”  
The next moment he was curled up on the floor, howling with pain and clutching his chest. Patton elbowed Virgil:  
“Don’t you think it’s too much, brother?”  
“Desperate times need desperate actions,” Virgil snapped. “Moral is nothing to those like him. Hey, you dumb meatball, want more? And remember: I don’t tolerate bullying. Never and ever.”  
Derek, growling with rage and powerlessness, stumbled away from their table. Now that was what sealed Signe’s suspicions, so she caught up with the quads after the lessons.  
“You’re gems.”  
To her surprise, they didn’t object to this. They silently led her to the farther corner of the school yard and got rid of their holographic (or something) disguises. Thank you very much, now they had normal eyes, not mirror ones, and Signe had to stifle a laugh when she spotted that the indigo one’s, Logan’s, gem was replacing his nose. Patton had his gem (huge and round, shaped almost like Remy’s) where the belly-button would be, Roman’s oval one was on his right shoulder and Virgil’s was in the sternal notch area.  
“We all apologize for what happened at the square,” Logan stated. “Now when Deceit and Remus are locked up we won’t even think about causing such trouble.”  
“I’m pretty sure you won’t,” Signe replied. “But what are you doing here?”  
“Neither of us had a chance to adapt to human life,” Patton explained. “Our Diamond is the youngest, and we haven’t been on our own here yet. So we decided to start from the beginning, so to say.”  
“Gee, you have no idea that the school is a jungle,” Signe sighed and regretted it: the quads smirked at the same time – now that was creepy.  
“A small dose of anxiety,” Virgil fiddled with his fingers, having made tiny purple fireworks dance between them, “is enough to make anyone shut up. I think you’ve seen it. That’s cool. Snap! And Derek shut up!”  
“You almost gave him a heart attack,” Roman commented. “Remy’s way of handling such situations is calmer. Remember?.. At the square…”  
“By the way, I still don’t get how Remy managed to erase the memories of everyone present at the square,” Signe interfered. “All that was left were some blurry frames.”  
“Remy tossed the glass with his oblivion potion they mixed with Edward in the air, and Chase shot it so that it exploded,” Logan explained. “I think Chase stated that he wouldn’t miss that trickshot for life.”  
“By the way, I suppose Black Diamond wanted to show you something,” Patton added. “He wanted your opinion… I’m glad that they decided to unite our teams.”

The room behind the door with the ten-beam star on it (for that was where the Black Diamond wanted Signe to go, as Jack of Diamonds told her) appeared to have no ceiling or walls, mainly because of blinding white light that came from everywhere at the same time. However, after some blinks Signe’s eyes adjusted to the atmosphere, and she saw that the room did have limits, thought they were too blurry to be seen from the first sight. And this room was also misty – full of thick white mist that hid Black Diamond’s silhouette almost perfectly, even though he was contrasting with the environment.  
Black Diamond was standing in front of a futuristic construction (sized almost like him) that most of all resembled a computer turned inside out – the most fitting comparison – with a large glass capsule in the very middle. Edward and Schneep were there as well, one checking the readings of various meters of the machine, the other making notes in his database.  
“Hi Mr. Black,” Signe greeted, for the doctor gems were far too involved in their activities to see her. Black Diamond, having spotted a new person, carefully picked her up and set her on his palm for them to be at the same level.  
“Greetings, Signe. Congratulations: you’re the first human to enter our temple.”  
“Temple?”  
“We call it so, because temples allow performing activities that are considered to be impossible in reality. I guess it also works with your human world.”  
“Okay.” Signe crawled to the edge of his palm to see what was going on with the machine. “What is it?”  
“A new experiment of creating a fusion pattern.”  
“A fusion pattern? Like… like Dark’s?”  
“Not really. You see, in the Homeworld the fusions of identical gems, Rubies, for instance, are actively used, but the fusions of different types of gems, like Dark, are considered to be unnatural and are banned. Zoisite and Rhodolite, what a mess… Well, usually Opal is a fusion of Amethyst and Pearl, but I decided to create an original Opal. Not a fusion one. But the most interesting is that… see?”  
Signe squinted at the capsule, which revealed not to be empty: two comma-shaped gems with uneven edges (probably still incomplete; one of them had its tip turned up and the other down) were soaring inside.  
“Does that mean it is still going to be a fusion?” she asked.  
“I don’t think so. It was one gem from the very beginning, but then it cracked in two, and they began developing separately. See, they still can be put together.”  
“They’re twins,” Signe realized.  
“What are twins?”  
“Em… it sometimes happens that two people are born at the same time. They may be identical or not. These ones seem to be identical.”  
“How interesting,” Black Diamond mused. “How very interesting. All we have to do is wait, right?”


End file.
